s 

A95 



ll|ll«»IIIIIUIJIIIIIIIIIII[lllllliraiirirTi»ilil!i>illllli»lirHWgWS«aaMMBBBBIM*BMaMMW^^ 

■ tll l nitflii l l H III HWWI»HM M MIilB MIWM>B«1—i 









FAR 

KATHARINE - ATHERTON - G 




.=^>v. THE'SOUTHERN ..<^ 
PUBLISHING' CO MP ANY 

' TEXAS 




rins^ 5 ¥ i 5^ 



Book. ^QSS 



Copight^i". 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 




October 



FIELD LORE FOR 
YOUNG FARMERS 

A TEXT-BOOK FOR THE GRADED SCHOOLS 



BY 
KATHARINE ATHERTON GRIMES 

Associate Editor of Southern Agriculturist 



EDITED BY 

W. L. HUTCHINSON 

Professor of Agronomy, 
Clemson Agricultural College 



DALLAS, TEXAS 
THE SOUTHERN PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1917 






Copyright 1917 

By the southern PUBLISHING COMPANY 



m W /9I7 



^^CI.A467454 



To every boy and girl who loves the fields, the 

woods and the open skies, this little volume is 

sent forth by a comrade whose delight in these 

things is as great as their own. 



FOREWORD 

The most healthful indication in present-day educa- 
tional systems is the tendency to look toward Nature as 
the base of all essential culture. Nor is this a new 
phase. There were days when the natural world was 
made the foundation -for the most elaborate and delicate 
mythological and religious systems history knows — 
when "rays of twisted rain" were deemed fit weapons 
for a god, and heaven was a Grecian mountain. The 
world grew gradually out of this childhood, but always 
there remained with it a sense of the pulsating harmonies 
of nature. This became educationally submerged for a 
period in artificialities of more or less cultural value, 
but its undercurrent still ran powerfully beneath. It 
remained for the acumen of twentieth century science 
to find true balances, and to reread the pages of the 
physical world's great book with new insight. Greater 
than myth or fable, lovelier than the most graceful pagan 
imagery could delineate, truer than the most acute sym- 
bolism could represent are these new meanings of star 
and clod, of cloud and flower. And greater than all is 
the conception of life as a unit — a manifold interpreta- 
tion of one universal vitality that from a single heart 



viii Foreword 

sends its rich current through the veins of every living 
thing. 

In this conception of Nature there is a buoyant 
grandeur that no statement of mere facts can possess. 
It is urged upon the teachers who shaU make use of the 
material in this little volume that its garment of detail 
shall be made to clothe this vital body of unified anima- 
tion; that through all the lessons shall beat the pulse of 
the Universal Mother. With this hope it is sent out to 
make its fellowship among those who hear infinite voices 
in the whispering of winds and waters and the soft up- 
rush of growing things. 

Acknowledgment is made with grateful pleasure of 
the aid given by L. R. Neel, editor of the Southern Agri- 
culturist, who read the first draft of the book and made 
many helpful suggestions; to Prof. H. A. Morgan, of 
the University of Tennessee, whose statements on some 
discussed points have been especially valuable; Rufus 
J. Nelson, editor of Farm and Ranch; David N. Barrow, 
editor of Progressive Farmer; President H. F. Estill, 
Sam Houston State Normal Institute; Professor S. C. 
Wilson, Department of Agriculture, Sam Houston Nor- 
mal; Professor C. W. Davis, Department of Agricul- 
ture, North Texas State Normal;. Professor F. W. Katz- 
meier, Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College; and 
Professor W. K. Tate, Peabody College. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Nature's Workshop i 

II The Soil 7 

III Plant Food — What It Is and Where It Comes 

From 14 

IV Two Ways of Growing 19 

V The Right Plant in the Right Place ... 26 

VI Rotation of Crops • 36 

VII Handling Difficult Soils 44 

VIII Getting Ready for Planting 51 

IX Planting 58 

X Taking Care of the Crop 65 

XI Cotton 73 

XII Friexnds and Enemies — Weeds 82 

XIII Friends and Enemies — Birds and Insects . . 88 

XIV Plant Diseases 96 

XV How TO Get Good Seed 103 

XVI Plant Bodies no 

XVII The Life Work of the Plant 115 

XVIII The Plant's Storehouse 124 

XIX How Seeds Travel _ . . 130 

XX In Mother Nature's Garden — ^The Farm Wood 

Lot 137 

ix 



X Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXI The Home Garden 144 

XXII Making Home yVnuACTivE 150 

XXIII Making a School Garden 157 

XXIV "To Make the Best Better" 165 

XXV Chickens 171 

XXVI The Hen and Her Place upon the Farm . . 183 



FIELD LORE 
FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

CHAPTER I 
nature's workshop 

Some Familiar Workshops. — Some of you may have 
watched a blacksmith at work in his shop and hstened 
to the music of his hammer upon the anvil. Others have 
visited a carpenter's shop or a harness shop. Some of 
you may have seen a cotton factory or an iron foundry — 
great workshops in which cotton or iron is the ma- 
terial with which the workmen deal. You all know, 
then, that a workshop is a place where materials are 
worked or made into things we use; iron, for instance, 
is turned into horseshoes, nails, stoves and machinery; 
timber is made into tables and chairs ; leather is cut and 
sewed into shoes and harness ; and cotton and wool are 
spun and woven into the cloth of which our clothes are 
made. You can think of hundreds of things made from 
these and other materials in the great workshops of the 
world. 

An Automobile Workshop. — If you were to visit a 
great automobile factory you would probably think it the 



2 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

most wonderful place in the world. You would see hun- 
dreds of articles, of every shape and size, made of brass, 
steel, copper, leather, iron, glass, rubber, wood, and even 
of silk, wool and cotton, all waiting to be used in the mak- 
ing of the beautiful machine. As you watch these pieces 
being put together, a bolt here and a screw there, yonder 
a piece of polished brass and in another place a bit of 
sturdy steel, all fitting so perfectly and making such a 
wonderful, powerful machine when done, you are 
amazed that any one could plan and carry out such a 
marvelous piece of work. 

The Most W onderfiil Workshop. — Yet you live in the 
midst of a workshop far more wonderful than the auto- 
mobile factory. It is hard to realize it because you hear 
no noise of hammers or saws, no hurry and bustle of 
workmen, no puffing of mammoth engines or swinging 
of great doors as people hasten in and out. Yet a force 
many times greater than all the engines in all the world 
is constantly busy all around us, getting the materials 
ready for our own mills, to make our food, clothing 
and all other necessities and luxuries of life. This 
workshop is the Natural World, and the mighty power 
at work in it we call Nature, which is another name for 
God. Just how God's power works in Nature's work- 
shop no one has ever been able to find out exactly, but we 
know it is there, tireless and silent, never pausing for 
rest, and, more wonderful still, never making a single 
mistake. 



NATURE'S WORKSHOP 3 

Materials for Human Workshops. — Neither in Na- 
ture's workshops nor in our own can anything be made 
without materials. The materials for our workshops — 
such as iron, timber, leather, cotton and wool — are ob- 
tained from the forests, fields and mines of many coun- 
tries. Animals furnish some of our most valuable ma- 
terials; from the hides of cattle we get leather; sheep 
give us wool. But before any of these materials are 
ready for the workshops of man, they must be formed 
in the great workshop of Nature. A log on its way to 
the mill looks to us at first very much like "raw material" ; 
but if we stop to think of the many years it took to grow 
the tree from which it was cut and the many forces that 
were at work upon it all that time, it begins to look like 
a "finished product" after all, — formed and finished in 
Nature's workshop. 

Materials for Nature's Workshop. — Where, then, 
does Nature get the materials for her workshop? She 
has to do just as we have done and gather them up wher- 
ever she can find them. They are scattered here and 
there and everywhere, in the soil, the air and the water, 
sometimes in one form, sometimes in another ; and usu- 
ally no one of these materials is found by itself, but two 
or more are found together. 

Nature's Materials Classified. — There are over sev- 
enty of these natural materials, or elements, as we must 
learn to call them. Five of them are gases, two are 
liquids, and all the rest are solids. When Nature wishes 



4 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

to make a tree, or a flower, or an animal, she finds the 
elements she needs and puts them together in just the 
right proportions to make whatever she wishes. As you 
think of the countless number of things she has made, 
and is making all the time, all dilferent, even down to 
the very blades of grass, you see that Nature is a very 
skillful worker indeed — a very genius for invention. 

Elements and Compounds. — When Nature puts two 
elements together before she uses them we call it a com- 
pound. Although the numl)er of elements never varies, 
being always just exactly so many, the numl)er of com- 
pounds that may be made from them could never be 
counted. Nature seems to prefer compounds, and she 
combines elements in all sorts of ways. For instance, 
two gases, hydrogen and oxygen, are combined to form 
water. Water, therefore, is not an clement, but a com- 
pound, since it is made up of tw^o different things. It 
can be separated again into hydrogen and oxygen, but 
these, being elements, could never be anything but hydro- 
gen and oxygen, no matter how many times they were 
divided, unless they were mixed with each other or with 
some other elements. This difference between a com- 
pound and an element nuist be kept in mind, as we will 
have to deal with both and must understand what each 
term stands for. 

We may say, therefore, that Nature's raw materials 
are elements, while those used in the workshops of men 
are the finished products of the natural world. With- 



NATURE'S WORKSHOP 5 

out Nature to begin the work, human power could do 
very Httle. 

Assisting in Nature's Workshop. — Would you not 
like to be a helper in Nature's wonderful workshop? 
W^ould you not like to experiment with these more than 
seventy elements and see what you could make with 
them? That is just what every farmer is — an experi- 
menter and an assistant. As an assistant he has to obey 
orders, of course; the orders, we call the "Laws of Na- 
ture." What these laws are we can learn only l)y keep- 
ing close watch of natural processes and following them 
as nearly as we can. Fortunately, many generations 
have been studying these things before us, and we may 
learn from their experiences many things we could not 
find out for ourselves. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

1. Learn this verse : 

Out in the fields and forests, 

Sweet in the sun and air, 
The fair, green things are growing 

So quietly everywhere. 
What is the power that blesses 

With beauty the common sod ? 
We know, though we name it Nature, 

The hand is the hand of God. 

2. Questions to think about : 

Name five of the finished products of Nature that are used as 
raw materials in the mills of man. 



6 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS j 

Name five products that we use just as Nature leaves them. 

Explain the difference between an element and a compound. 

Milk is a compound. Where did the cow get the elements from 
which it is made? ; 

For how many of the things you have worn, eaten or used this 
week are you indebted to Nature? Can you think of anything for < 
which you are not so indebted? 

3. Try this experiment : \ 
Fill a bottle or a glass fruit jar with moist soil and in it plant ; 

four white beans, putting the first down one inch from the top, ; 
the second one and one-half inches, the third two inches and the : 
fourth three inches. Push them down next the glass where you . 
can see them, but not so one will be directly over the other. Watch "1 
them and see if there is any difference in their sprouting and i 
growth. Keep the soil moist and set the bottle in a warm, light j 
place. See what you can find out. 

4. Go to a tree and find two small limbs about as thick as 
your thumb. Cut both off smoothly without injuring the tree, ; 
cutting one close to the bark of the tree and the other about an j 
inch from the tree. Go and look at these about once in two ! 
weeks and see how the cut places "heal up." '■ 




"Nature Set the Water to Work." 



CHAPTER II 



THE SOIL 



Different Kinds of Soil. — When you become a work- 
man in Natm-e's workshop the first thing you will need 
to understand will be the soil. There it is, spread out 
before you, of many kinds, dififering in color and quality. 
Here is a strip of yellowish sand, there a patch of black 
loam, and yonder a stretch of stiff, red or grayish clay. 
This hillside is rough and covered with stones; in the 
valley the ground is smooth as a carpet, with a beautiful, 
deep, soft, dark brown soil known as silt. You will no- 
tice, too, that the plants growing on the different soils 
vary greatly as to size, color and even kind. . It is plain 

7 



8 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 










Stratification — to a Depth of 
Twenty Feet 



that the first thing you will need to know will be about 
the soil. 

Beneath the Soil — What? — If you will dig down a 
little way you will find that the soil is arranged in lay- 

=-^^^A^r-^ ^^'^- ^^^^ ^°p ^^y^"^ ^^ 

darker ni color, but lighter 
in weight, than that below 
it. This top soil is us- 
ually but a few inches 
deep, while the subsoil 
("suiy means "under") 
extends to a consideral)le 
depth before the rock is 
reached. If you go deep enough, however, you will be 
sure to find a rock bed underlying the finely divided 
earth particles that we call soil. 

Earth's First Covering. — The fact is, that rock bed 
was at first the earth's outer surface. It took many 
thousands of years — yes, millions of them — to build this 
fine covering upon it. Until it was built, or at least 
started, there could not be any life, either of plants or 
animals. What a world it must have been — nothing but 
great, bare stretches of rock, or vast expanses of rest- 
less water; no trees, no grass, no birds, no animals; a 
world of loneliness and silence, except for the roar of 
the winds and the waves. You could not have lived in 
such a place, even if you had been there, for there was 
nothing to support life. 



THE SOIL 9 

Yet, desolate and unpromising as the world looked 
in those days, Nature took heart and went busily to work 
to make a world that people could live in. She had the 
sun, the water and the wind as helpers, and more than 
that, locked up in those forbidding walls of rock, were 
the seventy-odd elements. She knew what could be 
done with those elements if she had patience enough, and 
took time enough, to unchain their prison doors. 

The Beginning of Soil Making. — First, Nature set the 
water to work to roughen up the hard, unyielding rock 
surfaces. We do not know how long that faithful serv- 
ant had to work before any impression was made, but 
we know it was a long, long time. And it would have 
taken much longer but for other helpers that came along 
and went to work at the same task. These were mul- 
titudes of light, invisi])le particles, not seeds, yet with 
the same power of growth that seeds have. They were 
the "spores" of a strange, rootless plant called lichen. 
These spores were sticky, and when once they settled 
upon the rock they could neither be washed away by 
the water nor blown away by the wind. 

Hozv Lichens Help. — You probal)ly have seen lichens 
many times, perhaps without knowing what they were. 
They are the grayish or greenish stain-like growths 
found on old tombstones or on bare stretches of rock. 
As larger, scale-like bodies you may see them on old 
walls or tree trunks. They lie flat against the surface 
where they grow, and are with difficulty pulled loose, 



^;- 


, ■.- ■ : ,' .. -- :■.■/' 


"'] 


; 1 






M 


'i-'- 




Stone Lichen 







lo FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

even where they are large enough to get hold of. They 
look harmless enough, but nothing else will cause a sur- 
face to decay so quickly as 
\ ; .'/ , to let it become the prey of 
these strange plants. 
(iii;;^, \ , ^ , 7 The first lichens to ap- 

pear on the bare rock sur- 
faces were mere stains in 
appearance. They spread 
till they looked like patches of l)rown dust. By the help 
of the water these dull, stain-like bodies l)egan to dissolve 
the rock below them and in time a much larger growth of 
lichens appeared. These in turn died, making a very 
thin layer of dust as their remains mingled with the worn 
particles of rock. 

Plants and TJicir Part in Soil-Making. — At last 
enough of this kind of soil was built up to give a foothold 
lo a few tiny seeds. After that the work went on 
a little faster, for every plant that grew and died fur- 
nished a little more soil for the plants that came after it. 
The roots helped, too, by thrusting themselves into every 
tiny crack and crevice, where they swelled as they grew, 
breaking off tiny flakes of rock and letting in the water 
and the air. 

Other Helpers. — So, after ages and ages of time, the 
soil that we know was built, deep enough to support the 
giant forest trees and rich enough to furnish food for 
all the living things on all the earth. As time went on 



THE SOIL 



II 



other helpers appeared in the form of worms and ani- 
mals, which, by l)urrowing down into the soil, helped to 
keep it loose and light enough for the growth of plants. 
It is hard to say to just which of these servants of Na- 
ture we owe the most, but as none of the rest could have 




Gravel and Soil at the Foot of the Glacier 

worked without its help we must probably thank the 
water for the greater part of the work of soil-making. 

What Water Does Toward Soil-Building. — Water has 
many ways of working and is able to work under almost 
any conditions. It gets into the tiniest fissures and 
freezes there, breaking off pieces and even bursting great 



12 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

bodies of rock. It carries these fragments down the 
hills and across valleys, scraping and wearing and grind- 
ing them to powder. As ice, in the great glaciers of 
mountain regions, it imbeds great rocks thrown down 
from the mountain sides, holding them firmly as it 
proceeds on its slow, grim way to the plains, and break- 
ing them into bits against the sides and bottom of its 
rocky bed. It even carries mammoth boulders from 
place to place, rounding and smoothing them by fric- 
tion on the way. In many places may now be seen these 
giant rocks which scientists tell us were carried for 
long distances during the ''glacial period," an epoch of 
time before our history begins, during which most of 
northern and central North America was covered by an 
ice sheet. Since that time enough soil has formed on 
top of these boulders to support large trees. 

Soil-Bnilding To-day. — So we can understand a little 
of how what was once solid rock came to be the fertile 
ground we know. Soil-building is still going on, much 
faster than it did in those early days because many 
more forces are at work at it. It is a wonderful work, 
and one in which we may well be proud to help. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

1. Learn this quotation from Haskell: 

"Time should never be counted by years, but by deeds," 

2. Questions to tbink about: 

Why were the first trees much smaller than the ones coming 
later ? 



THE SOIL 13 

Why can none of the other soil-builders work without water? 

Why is surface soil richer than subsoil? 

How do common earthworms help in soil-building? 

How does it happen that soils of different kinds may be found 
in the same field? 

Name the different ways you think of in which water has helped 
in the work of soil-building. 



CHAPTER III 

PLANT FOOD WHAT IT IS AND WHERE 

IT COMES FROM 

Hoiv Plant Food in the Soil Increases. — As the earth's 
covering became deep and soft vast quantities of mate- 
rial were stored away in it to be used as plant food. 
Each bit of rock that was turned to dust, each plant that 
died and decayed, each animal or insect whose dead 
body went back to earth, added a little to this store of 
nourishment. Even the rain as it fell gathered up cer- 
tain elements from the air and brought them down to 
the ground to add to its richness. 

Elements Necessary to Plant Grozvth. — We have 
learned that there are over seventy of the natural ele- 
ments. Only about ten of these, however, are really 
necessary for plant growth. There are a few others 
that plants sometimes use, but these ten they must have 
or they will die. 

Combustible and Non-Combustible Elements. — There 
are two classes of elements that make up plant food. 
If you will try an experiment with some grains of corn 
vou can see how these are divided. Select ten large 
kernels and weigh them carefully. Now burn them in 
some way so that you can save every particle of the 

14 



PLANT FOOD 15 

ashes, and weigh the ashes. What has become of the 
rest of it? You will say that it has burned. It has 
not been destroyed, however, but has gone otT into the 
air as gas. 

The part that thus escapes we call the combustible 
or burnable part. That which is left is called the non- 
combustible part. All the elements in the corn belong 
to one class or the other. The combustible part of a 
plant is about 95 per cent, of the dry part of it — that 
is, of all the elements in it except water. But as water 
makes up a large part of a growing plant the combusti- 
ble portion of such a plant would not be nearly so great 
as that of dry grains. 

Names of the Necessary Elements. — There are five 
of these elements which disappear into the air. They 
are: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur. 
There are five others which are left in the ashes ; phos- 
phorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron. These 
ten things are what a plant must have to live and grow, 
and what it furnishes us, in other forms, for our food. 

Hoiv the Plant Gets Its Food. — How does the plant 
manage to get all these elements together? It has only 
two sources from which to draw its food, the soil and the 
air. Through its stem and leaves it obtains its whole 
supply of carbon and a part of its oxygen and water 
from the atmosphere. All the rest comes from the soil 
and is taken up by the roots. 

Why Plants Wither. — A plant can not use anything 



i6 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

that is not in the form of either a gas or a Hquid. So 
before it can take its food from the soil the elements 
must be "in solution"; that is, well dissolved in water. 
That is the reason plants wither and die during a long 
dry season. Without water a plant must starve to death 
even in the midst of plenty of food. That is why there 
are no plants on the deserts. There is plenty of food 
there for them and whenever a little shower falls, as 
sometimes happens even on the desert, tiny green things 
spring up and grow rapidly until the hot sun dries them 
up. 

Cake Making and Plant Making. — You have watched 
your mother make a cake, no doubt. She mixes a num- 
ber of things, just so much of each, and when she has 
stirred them together and baked them you enjoy the 
product very much. You would not like so well to eat 
each part separately. Perhaps she can take the very 
same things and, by putting in more of one article and 
less of some other, turn out something very different 
from what she first made. That is the way the plant 
does with the ten elements it gets from the air and the 
soil. It combines them in all sorts of ways and when 
it is through with them it stores them up in its roots, 
its fruit, its leaves or its stem until it needs them for 
itself, or until they are taken to be used by man. 

Substances Made by the Grooving Plants. — These are 
the most important of the substances which the plant 
forms by combining elements: 



PLANT FOOD 17 

Cellulose, the fibrous,- woody part of plants. 

Starch, which forms a large part of potatoes, corn, 
wheat, etc. 

Sugar, which is found in all plants, and which exists 
in large quantities in the sugar cane, the beet, all kinds 
of fruits and the sap of the maple tree. 

Gum, a sticky substance, of which gum arabic is a 
good example. 

Fat, a solid, greasy matter, most abundant in such 
seeds as those of the palm, myrtle and laurel. 

Oil, a liquid fat, such as olive or linseed oil, cotton 
seed oil, almond oil and castor oil. 

Acids, the sour part of the juices of plants, very evi- 
dent in green apples, lemons, cherries and the like. 

Why Fertilisers Are Needed. — It is in these forms 
that we get what the plant first drew from the soil. If 
the ground has not in it all the elements the plant needs 
they must be supplied or the plant can not thrive. A 
farmer who sows his fields year after year must expect 
to put back some of the food the plants are continually 
taking from the ground or he will finally have his land 
entirely "worn out" — that is, devoid of available plant 
food. That is why fertilizers are needed, and why all 
dead leaves and other waste plant matter should be left 
to decay on the ground. Each decaying plant returns to 
the soil most of the elements it took from it. 

It is a poor plan, anywhere, to try to get something 
for nothing. The plant can not give us our food if it 



i8 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

does not have plenty of material to make it. So before 
planting our seeds we should be sure the soil has food 
enough in it for the growing plants, and that it is in the 
right form for them to use. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

1. Learn this quotation from Dr. Knapp: 

"If you would have your field feed you, feed your field." 

2. Some questions to think about : 

Why is rainfall a better source of moisture than irrigation? 
Why can the same crop not be raised on the same land for 
many years without fertilizing? 

Why can the plant not use all the food elements in the soil? 
Suggest two ways in which soil fertility can be renewed. 



CHAPTER IV 

TWO WAYS OF GROWING 



THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A CORNSTALK AND 
AN OAK TREE 

( I ) First Difference, the Leaves. — What is the differ- 
ence between a cornstalk and an oak tree ? That sounds 
Hke a conundrum, doesn't 
it ? But it is not. It is a 
very serious question, and 
when you can answer it 
fully you will know the 
difference between the 
two great groups into 
which all flowering plants 
are divided. 

The first difference you 
will notice is in the leaves. 
Usually an oak leaf and a 
corn blade are very unlike 
in shape and size; but 
even if they were alike in 
those respects there would still remain one way in which 
they would differ greatly from each other. 

How do the veins of the corn blade run ? They do not 

19 




Typical Oak Tree 



20 FIEJ.D LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



branch and cross like those in the oak leaf, but ero 
straight, or almost straight, from the base of the blade 
to its tip. No matter how close they may come to each 
other, they never touch or cross, but remain side by side, 
or parallel, all the way. 




Parallel Vkined Leaf 
(Grain Leaf) 

lUit in the oak leaf the veins make a delicate network 
that covers the whole leaf. Have you ever picked up 
a "skeleton" leaf in the woods — a dry, brown leaf from 
which every part but the veins had de- 
cayed? Do you remember how much it 
.looked like a dainty, crisp bit of brown 
lace? Nothing in the world of Nature 
is more beautiful and wonderful than 
this complex tracery of veins in such 
k'a\es as those of the oaks, maples, and 
hundreds of others of our trees and 
plants. 

1m )r all tlic plants in the world, or very nearly all of 
them, belong, as we said before, to one or the other of 
these two great groups, the net-veined or parallel-veined 
plants. Which kind do you think you could find the 
most of in your own woods ? 




Net Veinki) Leaf 
(ALnplc Leaf) 



TWO WAYS OF GROWING 21 

Second Difference, the Seeds. — But there are many 
other differences between the plants of these two great 
classes besides the difference in their leaves. Their 
seeds are not all alike, for one thing. Examine care- 
fully an acorn and a grain of corn. The acorn splits 
readily into two similar halves, while the grain of corn 
does not divide at all unless you cut it. So the oak may 
be said to have a two-parted seed, while the corn seed 
is one-parted. People who have studied these things 
very carefully tell us that nearly all of the plants with 
parallel-veined leaves have one- 
parted seeds, while plants hav- 
ing net-veined leaves have two- 
parted seeds. 

Third Difference, the Stem 
and Branches. — But the great- 
est difference of all is in the way 
the stems of these plants grow. 
Both may bear leaves, flowers 
and fruit, but while those hav- 
ing one-parted seeds and paral- 
lel-veined leaves usually have 
most of their foliage at or near 
the top, with very few branches, ^^™ ^^^^ ^''''^ 

if any at all, on the rest of the stem or trunk ; those hav- 
ing two-parted seeds and net-veined leaves may have 
1)ranches all the way up, and have their foliage dis- 
tributed quite evenly over their whole structure. 









1^ ^ 


1 


W'> 


I^J 


i 


1 




^^^r^JH 


i§ 



22 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 




Transverse Section of 
Oak Tree 



Whai Jl'c Find Beneath the Bark of an Oak Tree. — 
If you cut an oak branch straight across you will find in 

the center a circle of pith, and 
around this a number of rings of 
woody fiber, the whole being sur- 
rounded by an outer circle of 
l)ark. You have counted the 
rings on the end of a log many 
times, no doubt, to see how old 
the tree was when it was cut, and 
know that a new ring of woody 
fiber is added every year that the 
tree stands and grows. 

Between the bark and the wood, although you can 
not distinguish it with the naked eye, is a circle of 
young cells which through all the growing season are at 
work making the new growth of the tree. These young 
cells increase and multiply, most of them being changed 
into the woody fiber that makes the new annual ring, while 
some of them make the new, tender bark which you see 
under the old, rough layer on the outside. This is called 
the "growing point" of the stem, and because it is outside 
of the solid cylinder that forms the main part of the stem, 
plants that grow in this way are called "outside grow- 
ers." 

The growth continues from the time it begins in 
the spring until it is checked by frost in the fall. Then 
the cells lie dormant until warm weather comes again, 



TWO WAYS OF GROWING 



23 




when they immediately begin work once more, making 
another ring to mark another season. They always be- 
gin right where they left 
off, so the stem keeps get- 
ting larger in diameter 
year by year. 

What We Find Be- 
neath the Rind of a Corn- 
stalk. — When you cut the 
cornstalk across, however, 
you find something very 
different. Instead of the 
pithy center, with its 
regular, surrounding 

rings of woody fiber, you 
find the whole stalk inside 
the thin, outer rind filled 
with pith, and the woody fiber scattered through it in long 
threads that run up and down the whole length of the 
stalk. These threads of woody fiber are very small, and 
the ends of them where you cut them off in cutting across 
the stalk look like little dots scattered through the pith. 
If you examine the thin, outside covering of the stalk 
you will find that it is full of these little thread-like 
fibers, too, set much more closely together than those 
on the inside of the plant. 

These fibers are really little bundles of cells that carry 
the sap up through the plant. They grow for only one 



Dormant Elm 
(This grand old elm stands in front 
of the National capitol at Washing- 
ton.) 




24 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

season, then stop ; and as there is no "growing point" hke 
that in the oak stem they can not go on when spring 
comes again. So when these cells 
stop growing at the end of the sea- 
son we say the bundle is "closed." 
And as the new season opens, the 
stem can never increase in diameter 
as the stems of the outside growers 
can. 

Inside Grozvers and Outside 
^™ mvER ""''"^ Grozvers.— Because the growth takes 
place inside the stem, plants of this 
kind are called "inside growers." Most grasses — and 
these include the small grains — the palms, bamboos, 
canes and similar plants belong to the inside growers. 
They have one-parted seeds, parallel-veined leaves, and 
usually bear three-parted flowers. Their stems do not 
enlarge in diameter after a few seasons' growth, but 
where they live on year after year, like the palms, they 
grow in height. 

Most of our forest trees, many of our field crops, such 
as beans, peas and clovers, and by far the greater part 
of our wild flowers and shrubs, belong to the outside 
growers. They have stems that resemble a cylinder in 
shape, leaves that have netted veins, two-parted seeds — 
sometimes more than two, but never less — trees and 
shrubs increase both in height and diameter from year to 
year. There are annuals, biennials and perennials. 



TWO WAYS OF GROWING 25 

There are about twenty thousand kinds of plants that 
belong to the inside growers, while more than eighty 
thousand belong to the outside growers. So by far the 
greater part of the earth's vegetation belongs to the 
latter class. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

Cut off the tip of an oak branch and find out how many woody 
rings it has. Then cut off the branch close to the trunk and count 
the rings. Is there a difference in number? 

Examine the bark of a tree and the rind of a cornstalk and see 
if you can tell why one needs to be so much thicker and heavier 
than the other. 

Plant some grains of corn and wheat in one box and some beans 
and squash seeds in another. In a little notebook write down 
everything you observe about their growth for the first ten days. 
What differences do you find ? 

Go to the woods and find five plants having net-veined leaves 
and five having parallel-veined leaves. How do their stems dif- 
fer ? In what way would you expect the seeds to differ ? What 
are the names of the plants found in the woods ? 



CHAPTER V 

THE RIGHT PLANT IN THE RIGHT PLACE 

JVhy Each Crop SJiould be Studied. — The struggle 
for existence has developed plants suited to different con- 
ditions. The conditions that suit one plant best may not 
do at all for another. Therefore if we want to make 
our various crops thrive we must study each one by itself 
and find out all we can as to the conditions and sur- 
roundings that suit it best. Otherwise we may plant 
crops on that part of the farm least suited to them and 
we may waste our efforts trying to grow crops not 
adapted to our soils or climate. 

~ Difference in the Plant Food Needed. — Although all 
plants nuist have the ten elements spoken of before, they 
do not use them in the same proportion. A field of oats 
uses more potash than is used by the same amount of 
corn, while potatoes, or beets, or any of the root crops, 
take more than either oats or corn. Wheat requires 
perhaps less potash than the root crops but requires more 
nitrogen, and so on. 

Elements Most Important for Plant Food. — The most 
important soil constituents or soil elements whose supply 
we have to consider when we are studying our soils with 

26 



RIGHT PLANT IN THE RIGHT PLACE 27 

regard to the plant food in them are nitrogen, potash and 
phosphorus, or phosphoric acid. The other seven ele- 
ments are usually present in sufficient quantities. Car- 
bon comes from the air, so there is always plenty of that. 
Oxygen and hydrogen come from water, and the rest 
are supplied about as fast as needed by the solution and 
decay of soil grains. So our work of supplying plant 
food is usually confined to the three elements named. 

Importance of an Element not Dependent upon Quan- 
tity Used by the Plant. — Of these three the question 
of the nitrogen supply is probably the most serious 
one. But for all that we can not say that nitrogen is the 
most important element, as each has a place of its own 
which no other can fill. Thus, while only a very small 
per cent, of iron is required to make a wheat stalk, yet 
the wheat could not grow without that tiny bit any more 
than it could without its much larger supply of nitrogen. 
You do not eat nearly as much salt as potatoes for your 
dinner, yet the little you do eat is just as important as 
the much greater bulk of potatoes. If you had no salt 
in your food it would be neither so palatable nor so 
digestible, and would do you little good. 

Hozv Nitrogen Differs from Other Food Elements. — 
So, though nitrogen is not properly more important than 
other elements which are used in smaller cjuantities, yet 
it must be more carefully considered than any other, for 
two reasons. One is, of course, because so much of it is 
needed ; the other is because so much of it is wasted. It 



28 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

differs in this way from the other two important ele- 
ments named, potash and phosphorus. These are not 
so easily lost as nitrogen. The soil keeps such firm hold 
of them that they can not be taken out of it to any great 
extent except by the roots of plants as these use them. 
But nitrogen escapes in several ways. A great deal is 
washed out of the soil by rains and carried off in surface 
water; it seeps down into the subsoil so far that plants 
can not reach it ; in some forms it escapes quickly into the 
air. It is, in fact, a very sprite of an element, and 
objects strongly to being harnessed down to do the work 
of man. The only way to be sure of losing as little of it 
as possible is to have a growing crop on the ground all 
the time, waiting to take it up whenever it is ready to 
use. 

Hozv Legumes Catch and Hold the Nitrogen. — Our 
best servants for catching and holding nitrogen are those 
plants called legumes. These are the plants whose seeds 
are borne in little pods, like the clovers, peas, beans, 
vetches and peanuts. They have the power of taking 
nitrogen from the air in much larger quantities than 
other common plants can. And the legumes would be 
as helpless as other plants if it were not for tiny organ- 
isms called bacteria which like to live in the tissues of 
these plants. These bacteria are so very, very small that 
it takes a strong microscope to see them, yet they are 
very busy, helpful little servants for all that. In a 
strange way which no one exactly understands they are 



RIGHT PLANT IN THE RIGHT PLACE 29 



able to take nitrogen from the air, especially from the 
air which fills the spaces between the soil particles. It 
is then carried through all the tissues of the plant, and 
in this way the plant itself is enabled to make use of the 
valuable element which these tiny servants have been 
busily gathering up/ 

Where the Bacteria Live. — If you pull up a cow pea 
or clover plant you can see the little homes where the 
bacteria live. They are the little 
balls on the roots, and are called 
"nodules." Millions of bacteria 
make their homes in the nodules 
on the roots of leguminous plants, 
and as they die the tiny bodies, 
which are very rich in nitrogen, 
are left in the nodules to decay 
and thus furnish more nitro- 
gen for the use of the plant. 

' How Legumes Make the Soil 
Richer. — When the plant is cut 
down, and the root, with its nod- 
ules full of bacteria is left in 
the soil, you can see that some 
nitrogen is thus stored up for 
the use of the next plant which 

1 To live and thrive the plant needs the nitrogen gathered by the bacteria, 
and for the same reason the bacteria must have the starch and sugar manu- 
factured by the plant. Each organism is necessary to the other and the 
exchange between them is symbiotic. 




Dcpt. of Agriculture 

Young Red Clover Show- 
ing Nodules 



30 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

grows in the same soil. If the whole plant is turned 
under, very much more nitrogen is left in the soil, of 
course. So farmers have found that one of the best 
and cheapest ways to supply their soils with nitrogen is 
to grow legumes to turn under. You can see, however, 
why it is a mistake to think that simply growing legumes 
and taking them off the fields will make the soil richer, 
for in that w^ay no more nitrogen is left than the plant 
has consumed in its growth, and often not as much. 

OfJicr Sources of Nitrogen. — The greatest natural 
source of nitrogen for all plants besides legumes is that 
part of the soil called humus. This is made up of decay- 
ing vegetable matter, such as roots, stalks and leaves of 
plants which have lain and rotted where they grew. It 
is also supplied in large quantities by stable manure. 

Value of Hmmis. — Humus not only supplies nitrogen 
but saves it as well. The more humus there is in the 
soil the less it will wash, and therefore the less of this 
valuable plant food is lost. Soils containing plenty of 
humus do not dry out so quickly as those having little 
or none, and can stand a drought better on that account. 
Every boy who has worked on a farm knows that a dark 
soil is richer than one that is light colored, and that in 
a dry season the crops grow much better on it. He also 
knows that the soil in the wood lot stays moist much 
longer than that in the cultivated field. This is partly 
because the trees prevent evaporation, but it is due even 
more to the greater quantity of decaying vegetable mat- 



RIGHT PLANT IN THE RIGHT PLACE 31 

ter in the soil. Humus also helps a great deal by making 
more of the phosphoric acid in the soil available. Soils 
that have little humus can not furnish nearly so much 
phosphoric acid for the use of plants as those which have 
plenty of humus, not because they do not have it, but 
because the action of the decaying vegetable matter is 
needed to put it into shape so the plants can take it up. 

For these reasons, and because it makes a heavy soil 
lighter and easier to handle, and a light soil richer and 
more productive, great care should be taken to keep 
our soils v^ell supplied with humus. When the ground 
begins to look light in color, and to become cloddy and 
sticky and hard to work, it is a sure sign that humus is 
needed ; and we must begin at once to supply it by using 
plenty of manure, planting crops to turn under, and in 
every way possible putting back the used-up vegetable 
matter that our crops must have if they are to do well. 

Hoiu Humus Soils Were Made. — It took Nature thou- 
sands of years to build up her humus soils. Just think 
how many, many times the plants and trees had to grow 
and die and decay to make the fine, rich, dark soil which 
all farmers know to be the best. We can not hope in a 
single year, or in five or ten years, to put back enough 
humus to last a great while. The right way to do is to 
keep putting back every year as much as our crops take 
out of the soil, and as much more as we can. Whether 
our soils grow richer or poorer depends altogether on 
how much more humus we give them than our crops 



32 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

take out. The warmer the cHmate the more rapid is 
the decay of the vegetable matter in the soil, and the 
more rapidly is it used up. So in warm climates the 
humus in the soil must be looked after more closely 
than in colder latitudes, or the first we know it is nearly 
all gone and our soils have grown very poor. 

Generous Plants and Selfish Plants. — As some plants 
take more from the soil than others do, so some give back 
to it more than others. We have seen that leguminous 
plants leave more nitrogen in the ground than they take 
from it provided they have been plowed under. And a 
little thought will show that a crop like grass, which 
leaves a large amount of roots and stubble to form 
humus, does not exhaust the land so quickly as one 
which leaves little or nothing behind it, as beets or 
potatoes. Grains, such as oats and wheat, though they 
belong to the grass family, do not make as thick a mat 
of roots in the soil as those plants which are commonly 
called grasses, such as blue-grass, bermuda grass or 
timothy. Therefore they do not leave as much humus 
in the soil when they are cut. Another advantage which 
the heavier sod of the latter plants gives the soil is that 
it keeps the ground shaded more, and thus favors the 
development of another very useful form of bacteria, 
which are very active agents in taking up nitrogen from 
the air. These organisms will not work except in 
ground that has a considerable supply of humus, because 
ground that does not have it dries out too quickly. So 



RIGHT PLANT IN THE RIGHT PLACE 33 

this is another reason for keeping plenty of humus in 
the soil. 

Results of Continually Planting the Same Crop. — 
The difference in the structure and growth of dift'erent 
plants makes it possible, as in the case of legumes which 
are plowed under, for one crop to replace some of the 
materials that are taken out by another. Crops requir- 
ing clean culture, such as cotton and corn, favor the rapid 
exhaustion or "wearing out" of the organic matter in the 
soil and the yields finally become so small as to be un- 
profitable. The effect on the soil is not the same for all 
crops. Alfalfa may occupy the land for many years 
without any decrease in the yields. Land grown con- 
tinuously in red clover may become "clover sick." Grass 
sometimes occupies the land for centuries without injury 
to the soil. Some crops maintain the supply of organic 
matter in the soil much better than others and if the. 
land is to remain productive the supply of organic matter 
must not run too low. It is the perishable part of a soil 
and the farmer, from time to time, must plow more or- 
ganic matter into his fields in order to keep up the supply. 
Weeds, insects and plant diseases are often worse where 
one crop is grown continuously. 

Reasons for Alternating Crops. — The farmer natu- 
rally prefers to grow cash or "money crops" but the 
enemies of these crops must be controlled and the land 
kept productive if they are to be profitable. A change 
to some other crop is often the best control for weeds, 



34 FTKT.D LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

insects and diseases. Cotton, for example, is the only 
crop injured by the cotton boll weevil. Most insects that 
injure corn do not attack cotton or clover. Plowing un- 
der crop residues is one of the cheapest ways of putting 
organic matter in the land while some inexpensive crops 
are grown solely to be plowed under to aid in keeping up 
the supply of organic matter. If there were no enemies 
to injure the crops and if it were not necessary to add 
organic matter and nitrogen to the soil to keep it i)roduc- 
tive farmers would grow only the most valual)le crops. 
They grow more than one crop to prevent total failure 
and to provide a year's business. They may l)e able to 
save more by growing feed crops rather than buy them. 
Many things must be considered in planning the best 
cropping system. 

Another thing that makes it advisable to raise differ- 
ent crops in turn is that weeds are more easily subdued 
by doing so. A held of grass or small grain can not be 
cultivated while it is growing, and weeds would in time 
overrun the land if it were continually sown to those 
crops. By putting in an occasional crop that needs hoe- 
ing and cultivating, such as corn, cotton or sugar beets, 
the weeds can be kept in check. In handling a hoed crop, 
too, a great many insects are turned out for the birds 
and weather to destroy. 

Crop Rotation not a New Plan. — This practice of 
alternating crops is called rotation. It is said to have 
been practiced for many ages, in different forms, accord- 



RIGHT PLANT IN THE RIGHT PLACE 35 

ing to the difference in soils and climates. The next 
chapter will show something of how it is carried on in 
our country, although of course the rotations differ 
greatly in dift'erent parts of our great land. The princi- 
ples remain the same, and can be applied everywhere. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

1. Examine the roots of all the crops that grow on your home 
farm. Compare those of wheat, corn, garden beet, clover. 

2. How many of these questions can you answer? Write your 
answers. ( i ) In using a commercial fertilizer containing a 
readily available nitrogenous substance, such as nitrate of soda, 
it should not be applied until the plant roots are ready to take it 
up. Why? (2) It is not usually considered profitable to follow 
corn with a root crop. Why? (3) A steep hillside is not likely 
to be as fertile as the bottom land at its foot. Why? (4) A 
field that is badly infested with weeds should not be sown to 
wheat or any similar crop. Why? (5) Humus is called the 
most valuable part of the soil. Why? 



CHAPTER VI 

ROTATION OF CROPS 

Six Essentials to Good Crop Rotation. — There are six 
things to consider in planning a series of crops that will 
make a good rotation : first, to have a nitrogen-gathering 
crop, such as clover, peas, or beans; second, to plan an 
occasional crop requiring hoeing, to keep the weeds 
down; third, to keep up the su])ply of humus by means 
of crops which leave considerable residue in the way of 
roots and stubble; fourth, to keep something growing 
on the ground all the time, so as to prevent the waste of 
food elements; fifth, to alternate deep-rooted and shal- 
low-rooted plants; sixth, to follow a crop using much 
potash or ash, such as cotton or corn, with a legume or 
nitrogen-gatherer. 

First Steps in a Suggested Crop Rotation — Treat- 
ment of the Soil. — Let us see if we can plan a rotation 
that will meet all these requirements. Suppose we have 
to start with a piece of ground that has a good sod on it, 
like a hay field or pasture. When it is plowed we shall 
find that the ground is full of roots and stubble that will 
decay in it and make a fine supply of humus. But it will 
need time to do this before much of the plant food which 

36 



ROTATION OF CROPS 



37 



it holds will be ready for use. So it should be plowed 
some time before the crop is to be planted in order that 
the grass roots shall be given a chance to decay as quickly 
as possible.' A sod should be plowed in the fall or early 
winter if corn or cotton is to be planted the following- 
spring, as then the frost and moisture and air have a 
chance to s^et in their work of makinof the soil fine and 



mellow and ready for the crop to feed upon. 

ing early the food elements are 

made ready for use a1)out as soon 

as the crop is ready to use them, 

while if left until just before 

planting time none of this work 

of decomposition has been done, 

and the little plants will have 

hard work finding food to keep 

them alive. 

First Crop. — If we plant for 
our first crop something that has 
Ion 



By plow- 



g,, deep-feeding roots, they 




will use material that is some dis- 
tance below the surface as well as 
that near the top of the ground, 
and give our new supply of hu- 
mus still more time to get ready 
for use before it is needed. A crop that needs frequent 
working will be better, too, than one that can not be hoed, 
as then the sods can be more thoroughly l)roken up, and 



Dept. of Agriculture 

Corn Roots 
(S% feet from the top of 
the "stool" to the end of 
the roots.) 



38 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



any weeds that have Ijcconie established in the pasture 
may be killed. In a sodded soil there are also likely to be 
grubs, wireworms and other injurious insects which fre- 
quent cultivation helps to destroy. 

The ])lants that best fill these re(|uirenicnts are corn, 
cotton or tobacco. They have moderately deep-feed- 
ing roots and need frequent cultivation. No other crops 
will do so well on sod ground. So we will put one of 
these first on our rotation when we begin with a sodded 
soil. 

A "Coiuc Between" Crop to Benefit the Soil. — We 
must not forget that we should keep something growing 
'?'' - <! on the land all the time so as to 

prevent wasting the plant food in 

f\\i*^S^f{\ i^ J ^^i<^ soil. After our corn crop is 

!^V fAWSlT^I^IG^^ about matured rye should be 

sown through it. Very soon 
after the corn has stopped taking 
up the plant food the rye is ready 
to begin using it. F.ven before 
the corn has stopped growing the 
J rye has begun making itself use- 
ful by taking up and saving the 
food near the surface, which 
the deeper roots of the corn no longer need. Rye 
may also be sow^n in cotton after the first picking, or on 
tobacco land after the crop is removed. Crimson clover, 
bur clover or vetch, w^here the corn or cotton is early 




Ucpt. of Agriciilliire 

Crimson Clover 



ROTATION OF CROPS 



39 



enough, is a good crop for this purpose, but if the season 
is very dry it is not so sure a crop as rye. 

This cover crop should be left on the field all winter. 
It helps to keep the rain from washing away the fine soil 
or making gullies in the fields, as the roots hold the soil 
particles in place. It also uses food elements as they 
become availal^le, even though it does not seem to grow 
much through the winter. In the spring the cover crop 
should be plowed under to make humus, and the ground 
is ready to be fitted for the next crop. 

The Second Year's Crop. — By this time the food ele- 
ments contained in the sod that was plowed under at 
first are ready to use. The rye or clover also, being 
young and tender, goes quickly back into the soil to make 
more plant food. Since the corn, cotton or tobacco of 
the preceding year made a 
rather hard draft upon 
the soil, a nitrogen-gath- 
ering plant should come 
next in the rotation. At 
this stage there are no bet- 
ter crops for our purpose 
than cowpeas or soy 
beans. They thrive 

splendidly on the elements 
supplied by the cover crop, and gather nitrogen. For 
these reasons, then, we shall let our second years' crop 
be one of these legumes. 




Dcpt. of Agriculture 

Root of Soy Bean Showing 
Nodules 



40 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



Preparation for the Tliird Crop. — As the peas or 
beans ripen early in the season we may use for our 
next crop one that will be sown in the fall. If the soil 
was rather poor to start on, a good covering of barn- 
yard manure* will be a good thing to put on it before 
it is plowed. But if it was fairly rich in the beginning it 
ought to raise one more crop before it needs fertilizing 
again. 

Kind of Crop Next Needed. — Our next crop should be 
one that sends out deeper roots than the peas or beans, 
as the plant food near the top has either 
been used or has worked down into a 
lower layer of soil. This is particu- 
larly true if a disk plow has 1)een used 
in fitting the ground, as it does not throw 
the under layers to the surface. 

Advantages of IJlieat as Third Crop. 
— We find that wheat meets our require- 
ments in both respects. It roots quite 
deeply and should be sown in the fall. 
Besides furnishing a grain crop for the 
following year it makes a good winter 
cover crop, performing the same service 
Root-growth of in that respect that the rve did the year 

Wheat Plant. . . 
a, original root OCtore. 

from wheat grain. ^^ j,^^^^,^j^ Crop.—Reasous for Its Se- 
lection. — By the time the wheat has grown and ripened 
the soil will have lost so much of its nitrogen that we 




ROTATION OF CROPS 41 

must begin to think of a new supply. As stated before, a 
leguminous plant is best for this purpose, and from every 
point of view one of the clovers is the best legume to use 
at this time. We should not wait until the wheat is 
harvested before sowing the seed for the next crop. 
Clover should be sown broadcast over the wheatfield in 
the spring and allowed to grow along with the wheat. It 
will not be tall enough by harvest time to be injured by 
machinery, and will have the advantage of a season's 
growth before cold weather comes on. As a drought is 
hard on clover, especially when the plants are young, it 
should be sown early in the spring so as to get a good 
start during the moist part of the year. 

Some one of the grasses, such as timothy or orchard 
grass, is often sown with clover. The two together 
make a fine hay crop as well as a good winter cover 
crop. As the roots of the clover go down quite deep, 
while the grass roots stay near the top, neither robs the 
other of plant food. The roots of the two together form 
a heavy sod, furnishing a plentiful new supply of humus. 

Besides replacing the nitrogen and humus that have 
been taken from the soil, the clover does much good by 
drawing to the surface and rendering usable many of 
the food elements in the subsoil. 

Starting Over Again. — After the hay has been 
removed the sodded ground is ready to be planted again 
to corn. The same rotation may be carried out again, 
or some similar one substituted. In different localities 



42 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

other crops of the same nature may be substituted for 
the ones given/ 

Summary. — To summarize, crops should be rotated 
so as to supply nitrogen, to keep down weeds, to keep 
up the supply of humus, to use all the available food 
possible, and to prevent waste by washing. A rotation 
that will meet these requirements is as follows : 

1. Corn, cotton or tobacco (on sod ground) followed 
by rye, crimson clover, bur clover or vetch to be turned 
under the following spring. 

2. Soy beans or cowpeas. 
3 Wheat. 

4. Clover (kind dependent on locality) mixed with 
some grass. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 
Write out the ten essential elements and tell something of five of 
them. Make out two other rotations from the list below, one for 
the "corn belt" and one for the "cotton belt," each of which 
shall equal in value the one given. Barley roots very shallowly. 
Where should it come in the rotation? Where should potatoes 
come in this rotation? Japan clover? Cotton? Why? 

OTHER ROTATIONS 

I. Corn — oats — clover. 2. Corn — wheat — clover. 3. Corn — 
oats — wheat — clover. 4. Corn — corn — clover. 5. Corn — corn — 

1 Among the best known clovers may be mentioned the following : Red, 
crimson, bur and alsike. Japan and sweet clover and alfalfa, though not 
true clovers, are to be considered with this group. 

For the varieties and distribution of clovers and alfalfa, with methods 
of handling in various localities and under varied conditions, see " Forage 
and Fibre Crops of North America," by Thomas F. Hunt. 



• ROTATION OF CROPS 43 

oats — clover. C. Corn — corn — oats — wheat — clover. 7. Corn — 

oats — wheat — hay — hay \ , ^ V 8. Potatoes — wheat — clover. 

[^clover J 

9. Potatoes — wheat — alfalfa — alfalfa. 10. Wheat — hay — pota- 
toes — beans, ii. Tobacco — rye — clover. 12. Corn — corn — oats 
— hay — pasture. 13. Cotton — oats — peas — corn — peas. 14. Cot- 
ton — corn and peas — oats and peas. 

The corn belt man favors corn. 
The New England man favors hay. 
The cotton belt man favors cotton. 
The wheat belt man favors wheat. 




Terraced Hill Sides 



CHAPTER VII 



HANDLING DIFFICULT SOILS 



Few Perfect Soils. — We seldom find things just as we 
would wish them to be. This is as true in farming as 
anywhere else. If all soils were perfect the farmer 
would have a very easy time. There would be nothing 
to do but to plant the seeds and watch the plants grow. 
But the fact is that very few tracts of land can be called 
perfect in any respect. Fortunately even the most 
troublesome fields can be made into very good ones by the 
proper treatment. We must first find out what needs 
to be done, and then study out a way to do it. The 

44 



HANDLING DIFFICULT SOILS 45 

poorest piece of tillable land can be made fertile if one 
understands its needs and how to supply them. 

The Best Soils. — The ideal soil for general farming 
is one made up of fine sand, clay and humus, in varying 
proportions, some parts having more clay and others 
more sand, but both containing plenty of humus. Soils 
having considerable clay in them are better for most of 
the grain and root crops, as they are denser and retain 
the plant foods better. Enough sand and humus should 
be mixed with the clay to cause it to crumble readily and 
be easy to work. Sandy soils are warmer and dryer, 
and can be worked earlier in the spring than the clays. 
For these reasons they are especially suitable for gar- 
dening and truck growing. Sandy soils must have a good 
per cent, of clay and humus mixed through them, or 
they will be too light, and will lose both plant food and 
moisture easily. All soils should be properly drained; 
about this more will be said later. 

Some Poor Soils. — We do not find the average farm 
filling these requirements in every part of it. There are 
pretty sure to be fields that need to be improved in some 
way before they are ready for a crop. They may be 
worn out from exhaustive cropping, or they may be too 
sandy, too heavy — that is, containing too much clay — 
too flat, too hilly or sour. In any case our first care 
must be to remedy the trouble as soon as possible. 

Improving a Sandy Soil. — A soil that is too sandy 
and light usually lacks humus. This can be supplied in 



46 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

two ways : ( i ) by the use of stable manure, the best 
kind for such a soil being that which contains a great 
deal of straw or other litter; and (2) by seedings of rye 
and other grasses to be turned under. As a rule, it is 
a mistake to take the first crops from a field of light 
,sand. It pays better to spend a little time and money 
working humus into such soil. After several good 
growths of green plants have been plowed under and the 
soil has been worked down well it should begin making a 
profit. 

Improving a Clay Soil. — The heavy clay soil is more 




Dcf^t. of Agriculture 

Product of this Tract of Land Before Drainage 

than likely to be suffering from lack of drainage. If it 
cracks during dry weather, or ii water stands on it long 
after falling, this is certain to be the case. A deep 
furrow following some natural depression will carry 
off most of the surface water, but an under-ground 



HANDLING DIFFICULT SOILS 



47 



drain of tile is far better. Good under-drainage also 
keeps the ground from baking and hardening. 



li.iifetfr.V. 




Dcpt. of Agriculture 

• Product of the Same Tract of Land After Drainage 



The heavy- clay soil may be further lightened and 
made workable by plowing in an occasional crop of green 
manure, and by spreading it with coarse farmyard litter. 
It needs frequent cultivation so as to let the air all 
through the soil, to dry it and sweeten it. 

Improving a Sour Soil. — A sour or acid soil is usually 
one that contains plenty of humus but has not been well 
drained, although undrained soils often become acid, 
even though deficient in humus. Manuring will do little 
good until the ground is sweetened, which may be done 
by a liberal application of lime, and by thorough cultiva- 
tion to expose the soil particles to the air. A sour soil 
may be often detected by the growth of sorrel, which 



48 FIKl.D LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

nearly always appears on it when it is allowed to lie idle. 
As an acid soil will not produce clover, the lime should be 
applied before clover is sown. 

Ilillsidc. — One of the hardest soils to do anything 
with is that which lies on a steep hillside. The greatest 
trouble arises from the washing and gullying done by 
rains. A cover crop will prevent this to some extent 
by binding the soil particles together and holding them 
iu place. A hillside, therefore, should never be left bare. 
Surface water may be controlled by a series of terraces 
following around the natural slope of the hill face, thus 
keeping the water from cutting its own channels. On 
a steep hill that is not well w^orked an under-drain does 
not do much good unless the hill is terraced, as the water 
rushes away before it has time to sink into the ground. 
The best method of preventing soil washing on hillsides 
is by terracing, which consists of a system of ridges 
following the natural contour of the land and not high 
enough to prevent working. 

'Worn Out Soils." — The hardest problem of farming, 
and the one most frequently met with, is how to deal 
with ''worn-out" soils. It must be understood that what 
are called "worn-out" soils most need such treatment 
as will render plant food available. In nearly all 
cases — if not in all — the elements are still there, but are 
not in such form that all plants can use them. They 
are not available. The treatment for these should con- 
sist of liberal applications of barnyard manure, together 



HANDLING DIFFICULT SOILS 49 

with a crop rotation similar to that described in a pre- 
vious chapter. If the soil is badly worn more rye should 
be sown for green manure and more legumes raised to 
renew the nitrogen supply. For instance, after the 
wheat crop rye may be sown in the fall to be turned 
under in the spring, to be followed by a crop of 
cowpeas or soy beans, where these do well, which will 
in turn be taken off in the fall to allow wheat to be sown 
again. This makes a longer rotation, but one that is, in 
many ways, better for run-down land. 

Brains Needed. — It must be remembered that land can 
not give back what it does not have. If we want good 
crops we must put the ground in condition to produce 
them. We must take care that the best systems of drain- 
age and cultivation be practiced, and that the plant food 
in the soil be exhausted neither by over draft nor by 
waste. It is not the land so often as the mind behind it 
that makes the difference between a good crop and a 
poor one. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

1. Examine the fields upon your father's farm and see whether 
you can decide what each needs to increase its yield. Which 
fields give the best ci;ops? Why? 

2. Write about one hundred words on each of the following 
questions : 

What treatment would you suggest for a low, flat field? Why? 
What soils would be made better by green manuring? What 
kinds do not need it? Why? 



50 ini'JJ) LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

(live three results of poor draiuaj^c. Can you find examples of 
any of these on your father's farm? 

Should you treat a worn out elay soil in the same way as a 
worn out sandy soil ? Give reasons for your answer. 



r 




The Disk Harrow 



CHAPTER VIII 



GETTING R]-:A1)Y FOR PLANTING 



Deep or Shallow Plozving. — You must consider the 
kind of ground you have, the condition it is in, how it has 
been handled previously and the crop you want to raise. 
Some crops, as we have seen, have long- roots that reach 
far down into the ground, while others have fine roots, 
most of which spread about near the surface. And 
though any crop you plant will do some of its feeding 
below plow depth, especially will the deep-feeding crops 
fare better because of a deeper and better seed-bed that 

51 



52 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

will result from plowing deeper than you would for those 
that feed largely from nearer the surface. 

The Purpose of Plowing. — Let us see what is the pur- 
pose of plowing. You know that plants are delicate, 
having bodies with roots so fine and sensitive that any 
rough usage is fatal to them. It is plain that if these 
frail things have many hardships to contend with they 
will either die outright or go on living in a stunted, dis- 
torted way. Our work must be to provide for them a 
feeding ground that shall be fine, mellow, full of plant 
food, and soft and deep enough to allow the rootlets to 
go wandering about where they will in search of food. 

TJw Best Time to Plozv. — If you plow your ground 
while it is so wet that the furrow-slice looks shiny — "as 
if it were greased," as one boy said — it will bake and dry 
down in big, hard chunks so that it wall be almost impos- 
sible to make it fine and soft again. On the other hand, 
if you wait till it is too dry it will turn up in great, hard 
clods that are just as hard to handle. The proper time 
to plow is when the furrow turns over moist, fine and 
mellow, neither slippery nor lumpy. It is very important 
that plowing be done while the soil has exactly the right 
amount of moisture, as otherwise it takes a great deal of 
work to get it into the proper condition. ' 

Different Times of Plozmng for Different Fields. — 
Some soils can be worked much earlier in the spring than 
others. Those that are called "light" soils, that are 
porous and drain readily, like sand or loam, may be 



GETTING READY FOR PLANTING 53 

plowed much earlier than the heavy or sticky soils, like 
clay. As each farm is likely to have several different, 
kinds of soil, the farmer should plan his work so that 
each field can be plowed while it is in the right condition, 
no matter whether it is to be used for a late crop or an 
early one. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Deep Plozving. — 
We hear a great deal about deep plowing. We have seen 
that the soil is made up of two principal layers, the top 
one usually being the more fertile, as it contains the 
greater part of the humus which has been accumulating 
all through the ages. The subsoil is heavier and less 
porous, and contains but few of the elements that plants 
need except the minerals. 

If you plow so deep as to throw this infertile sub- 
soil to the top of the ground, the young plant will starve 
before it can get down through it to the fertile top soil 
which you have covered up. On the other hand, if you 
do not disturb the subsoil at all it will lie there, a soggy, 
heavy mass, not allowing the ground to drain out as it 
should, and so thick and gummy that the roots of deep- 
feeding plants cannot make their way through it to get 
what plant food it does contain. 

Siihsoilmg. — The best plan for utilizing the subsoil for 
plant growth is to let your plow go down about as deep 
as the last year's furrow went, perhaps a little deeper, 
but not much. Then take a small plow — the kind called 
the "bulltongue" is good — and run it three or four inches 



54 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

below that, in the bottom of your furrow. This stirs up 
the subsoil and makes it light and loose without throw- 
ing it to the top. This process is called sub-soiling. 

Use of the Harrow. — This makes a deep, loose seed- 
bed for the plants to burrow a1)out in. The next thing to 
consider is how to make it fine enough so that the little 
roots can get through it easily and reach all the plant 
food it may contain. Wherever there is a hard lump 
the roots must go around it and do not get the food shut 
up inside of it. To get the best out of the soil the roots 
must be able to touch every particle of it as far as they 
can reach. 

The disk and spike-tooth harrows are good tools to 
use in this part of soil fitting. The disk harrow cuts 
down through the furrow slice and pulverizes the ground 
to a good depth. The spike-tooth works it down on top, 
leaving the surface smooth and mellow. The soil should 
be worked over with both these tools, alternately, several 
times after it is plowed, until the surface is as fine and 
soft as a garden bed. 

Land Roller or ''Smooiher." — Although the soil must 
be loose enough to let the roots through readily, it must 
also be firm enough to hold them in place. As the newly 
planted seed are to receive moisture to start growth from 
the soil, rolling or smoothing lightly presses the soil par- 
ticles against the seed much as the gardener does when he 
tramps the newly planted row of garden seed, or as the 
wheels of the corn planter do. Then, too, in sections 



GETTING READY FOR PLANTING 



55 



where the spring winds are strong the sHght surface 
packing in some measure protects the seed. Under these 
conditions the land roller is the best tool. Some use 
what is called a "smoother," which consists of three or 
four planks fastened to- < ^ 

gether so the edges over- 
lap, the implement thus 
made being dragged 
broadside over the field. 
Anything is satisfactory 
that will make the ground 
solid enough to hold the 
plants in place and yet 
prevent loss of moisture. 

Fertilisers. — Barnyard 
manure lasts longest of 
any fertilizer and con- 
tains a greater number 
of the elements neces- 
sary for plant food and permanent, soil improvement 
than any other. Where plenty of straw and litter are 
used about the stables it makes a heavy soil much lighter 
and more friable — which means more easily crumbled 
and pulverized. This manure should be put on the 
ground before it is worked, so as to ])e thoroughly mixed 
with the soil. 

Fall Plowing. — For several reasons it is usually best 
to plow in the fall. This plan gives the fertilizing ma- 




The Land Roller 




5.6 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

terial left in the refuse of the last crop time to decom- 
pose, or rot, and so be ready to feed the baby plants in 
the spring*. There is also usually a growth of green stuff 
on the land in the fall which, if plowed under, furnishes 
another source of nourishment for the growing crop. 

Many harmful weeds are 
thus kept from seeding- and 
are turned instead to a 
good use. 

There is another very 
good reason for plowing in 
the fall. Many of the in- 

TiiREE Stages of Click Beetle sectS that WOrk great harm 

Back and side views of Wire-worm, ^^^ ^^^j. ^rops burrOW in the 
Pupa and mature Beetle. ^ 

ground all winter. Fall 
plow^ing turns them out and the hungry birds and cold 
weather make short work of them. Where plowing is 
left till spring they are about ready to come out any- 
how% and do not mind being tumbled out of bed a little 
earlier than common. Hence fall plowing is better even 
if it is impracticable to follow it with a cover crop. 

Fall plowing also exposes the ground to the action of 
the frost, which tends to pulverize it and make a fine seed 
bed. • 

Tilings to Remember. — These are the things to keep in 
mind while getting the ground ready for planting: 

To loosen the soil deep enough so that the roots wall 
have plenty of room. 



GETTING READY FOR PLANTING 57 

To make it so fine that the roots will be able to reach 
every part of it. 

To make it firm enough to hold the plant in place. 

To work into it whatever plant food it lacks. 

To plow it long enough before planting to allow time 
for food elements to become available. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

1. Make a diagram of your father's farm, showing what crops 
grew in the fields kist year. 

2. Make another diagram showing what crops can be grown 
most profitably in the fields this year. Tell why you put each 
crop where you do. 

3. Answer these questions : 

What fields on your father's farm would be benefited by sub- 
soiling? Why? 

Why is a hard lump just so much wasted soil? 

How many reasons can you give for fall plowing? Can you 
give any against it ? 

Do you know of a field where the subsoil has been untouched 
for several years? What is the result? 

Sometimes a fertilizer called " compost," made of muck, ashes 
and dead leaves, is used where fertilizers are scarce. What ele- 
ments are furnished by the muck? By the leaves? By the 
ashes? Of which does the plant need the most? 



CHAPTER IX 

PLANTING 

"Gifts that grow are best ; 
Hands that bless are blest : - 
Plant — Life does the rest." 

— Lucy Larcom. 

Pleasure in J J ^af citing Growing Plants. — Who does 
not love to plant seeds ? There is something that never 
gets old about watching the dainty green things make 
their way out of their dull cradles and come up into the 
sunshine to see the world. One can almost imagine 
them saying in surprise: ''Well, here I am; what do I 
do next?" They soon get acquainted with their sur- 
roundings, however, and go to work as happily and 
willingly as if there were nothing in the world worth 
while but to eat and to grow — and there isn't, for 
them. 

Giving Seeds a Fair CJiance. — If they are to do this 
in the most profitable way we must give them the very 
best chance we can. This is easier said than done, since 
most farms have several dififerent kinds of soil, and there 
are several dififerent kinds of seeds to find just the right 
homes for. We must first learn how to fit them to- 

s8 



PLANTING 59 

gether, the right seed to the right soil, so that both 
seed and soil may do their best. Where the soil has 
been kept in the right condition, and the proper ro- 
tation has been carried out in previous years, the prob- 
lem is already solved. But it often happens that one 
has to take charge of a farm without knov^ing what it 
has done or will do, and where the soil has been improp- 
erly handled. Sometimes, too, one must begin work in 
the spring, with the preparation that should have been 
made in the fall undone. The question then is to man- 
age the crops so that they will return as large a profit 
as possible the first year, and at the same time get the 
ground ready to begin a good rotation as soon as may 
be. It is an awkward situation in many ways but one 
that we frequently have to contend with. 

A Supposed Case. — Let us suppose we have just moved 
to such a farm. It has six fields, and among them we 
find about as many grades of soil, good, bad and medium. 
Let us look over the farm and see what we can do with 
it. 

Field Number i : Light, Sandy Soil. — Field number 
I is a light sand, fairly well supplied with humus. It 
can be worked earlier than any other field on the farm, 
so it had better be sown to peas. After these are har- 
vested we can sow rye, which can be turned under with a 
good coat of manure in the spring to make a place for the 
corn with which we will begin our regular rotation next 
year. 



6o FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



Field Number 2: Heavy Clay Soil. — Field number 
2 is heavy clay, pretty well worn out. There is quite a 
growth of sorrel on it, so we conclude that it is a little 
"sour." We had better put peas here, too, with a lib- 
eral application of lime to sweeten up the soil and get it 

ready to grow the clover seed we 
will put on as soon as the peas 
are harvested. It will be neces- 
sary to drain this piece a little, 
so we will run a tiled ditch down 
that little hollow near the mid- 
dle of the field before we plow it. 
We will take plenty of time in 
fitting it, too, as we want a nice 
field of clover here next year, 
both for our own sake and for 
the sake of the field. 
Field Number j: Strong Clay 
Loam. — Number 3 is about the best field on the farm. 
It is a good, strong clay loam and will not need any 
fertilizing. We will put it in barley this spring, and 
sow it to wheat as soon as the barley is oft in the fall, 
which will begin our rotation right in the middle. We 
will work from the wheat to the clover, the corn and 
the peas, and stand a good chance of getting paying 
crops from all of them. 

Field Number 4: Old Pasture Lot. — Number 4 is an 
old pasture lot, the very thing for corn. Having been 




Mich. Agricultural College 

Sorrel 



PLANTING 6i 

run with stock it will not need much manuring, so we 
will save our fertilizer for the fields that need it more. 

Field Number j: JV ashed Hillside. — Number 5 is a 
field that we cannot do much of anything with this 
spring. It is a steep, washed hillside, with raw gullies 
cutting it in every part. We will leave this until our 
other crops are planted and then see what we can do to 
stop its washing and start a humus supply. After we 
get the other crops in we will sow this to buckwheat, 
which we will turn under in the fall to give place to 
rye, which will be used in the same way. As we clean 
up the other fields we will throw all the trash we can get 
into the gullies, and every time we plow we will throw 
into them as much dirt as we can, plowing straight 
across them wherever it is at all possible. Next year if 
it responds to this treatment pretty well we may try 
some corn on it. But it may take us two years to get it 
ready for any kind of crop. 

Field Number 6: Rich Bottom Land. — We will have 
little trouble getting a crop on field number 6. It is a 
small field of rich, loamy bottom land. We will use this 
as a general truck patch for home use, a field which every 
farm should have. We will plant it to potatoes, cab- 
bage, sweet potatoes, popcorn, turnips, sugar-beets and 
melons. When fall comes we may sow it to wheat or 
put it in rye to turn under for corn next year. 

Advantages of This Plan. — This plan not only gives 
us a good variety of paying crops for this year but starts 



62 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

our rotation as early as possible. It may be varied, al- 
ways keeping- pretty close to these general principles. 
All work should be done, not with the idea of a single 
season's greatest profit, except in the main crop, but 
with a view to increasing the productivity of the soil for 
the years to come. 

Time and Depth of Planting. — The time and depth 
of planting depends upon several things, prominent 
among them being the soil, the seed and the season. 
Upland can, as a rule, jje worked earlier than lowland, 
and sand earlier than clay. Usually early planting 
should be comparatively shallow and later planting 
deeper, as the soil is likely to become dryer as the season 
advances. 

Giving the Plants Air. — It is a very common mistake 
to plant too deep. The young plant nuist have air, and 
when it is too far below the surface it smothers for want 
of it, just as a person would with a blanket thrown over 
his head. For this reason the crust that sometimes 
forms above seeds shortly after planting is likely to 
either kill or seriously retard them. It should be broken 
as soon as possible. A light harrow with the teeth set so 
they slant backward will do this thoroughly without 
disturbing the seed. In case of seeds planted in hills, 
like melons or squashes, the crust may be broken by go- 
ing over the ground lightly with an ordinary iron gar- 
den rake. 

Order of Planting. — As seasons vary greatly no ex- 



PLANTING 6z 

act date for planting any kind of seeds may be set. Oats 
and barley of the farm crops, and onions and cabbage of 
the truck crops, come among the first/ Cool, damp 
weather does not hurt them ; on the contrary, they thrive 
on it. Corn, however, should never be planted until the 
soil is thoroughly warmed and all danger of frost past. 
The same rule applies to all vines, such as melons and 
cucumbers. Any plant does better if it is not planted 
until the season is far enough advanced so it can grow 
rapidly from the start, with no periods of slow growth 
or standing still. 

Danger of Late Planting. — There is one serious dan- 
ger in delaying planting until too late. In such a case 
a large proportion of the plants may grow well and de- 
velop and ripen their seeds, but very many will fail to 
attain full growth and fail even more largely in the full 
development of their seeds. This will give a large pro- 
portion of light, immature grains. Experience is the best 
teacher when it comes to the question of planting time. 
Until we have had a chance to get experience of our 
own the safest plan is to rely upon that of some neigh- 
bor whom we know to have been successful. For the 
exact date to plant is one of the things that no book can 
tell us. It varies with seasons, with soils, with latitude, 
and even to some extent with the previous handling the 
soil has had. 

^ It should be borne in mind that throughout most of the cotton growing 
country oats and barley should be planted in the fall. 



64 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



SOME TIIINC.S TO DO 

1. Draw a plat of the farm mentioned in this chapter. 

2. Work out a four year rotation, starting as suggested. 

3. Work out a four year rotation, starting in some other way. 

4. On which of your father's fields could you carry out this 
rotation as suggested? On which would some other be better? 
Why? 



CHAPTER X 

TAKING CARE OF THE CROP 
"Well begun is half done." — Old Proverb. 

Importance of Getting Ready. — The time to begin 
taking care of a crop is when you begin to prepare the 
soil for it. If the work has been well done until plant- 
ing time the corn will — well, not exactly take care of it- 
self, but will give you very little trouble. If your mother 
is expecting company to dinner she usually sees that 
most of her cooking is done beforehand, then all she has 
to do after her guests arrive is to serve it. The same 
rule applies to your plants. If the plant food is ready 
in the soil before the plants arrive, and if the soil is in 
the right condition for them to make use of it, your 
work will not be very hard while the crop is growing. 

Five Ways of Helping the Young Crop. — There will 
be some work to do, however, all the way along. Weeds 
will come up, the soil will crust over or dry out, and once 
in a while your plants will need new food put where they 
can get it. There are, in fact, five ways in which you 
may help your crop after you have planted it. They are : 

6s 



66 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

By killing- weeds. 

By helping- the roots to have plenty of air. 
By saving moisture until it is needed. 
By helping to keep the soil warm. 
By keeping food within reach of the young plant 
roots. 

The Best Time to Fight Weeds. — First let us see about 
the weeds. There is only one time in its life when a 
weed cares very much about what happens to it. That 
is when it is just beginning to grow. While it is still in 
the seed it will stand almost anything except fire and 
come out alive and lively. Many plants, when well- 
grown, defy almost any attempt at destruction. If you 
cut them off, their roots will grow again; if you dig 
them up and lca\'e them on the ground, they will make 
new roots and go on as if nothing had happened; if you 
pull them up and throw them away, the chances are that 
they will still keep ahead of you by scattering their seed 
in every direction. In one way and another the weed 
will contrive to get the better of you at every turn. 
But while it is young, just starting to grow, it is very 
tender. It has neither roots strong enough to renew its 
growth nor seeds to keep the mischief brewing. Right 
then is the time to take it in hand. 

The First Attack Upon the Weeds. — A few days after 
your crop is planted, before the plants have appeared 
above the ground, you will see a sprinkling of weeds all 



TAKING CARE OF THE CROP 



67 



over your field. They are small and tender, and a little 
disturbing will kill them. Take a light, spike-tooth har- 
row, set the teeth so they slant backward as for breaking 
a top crust, and go over the field. This will not injure 
the crop and will save much trouble in the weeks to come. 
Here again "well begun is half done," and if this work 
is done thoroughly it will be comparatively easy to keep 




Adjustable Spike-toothed Harrow 

the weeds in check the rest of the season. Of course 
cultivating and hoeing must be done as usual, but they 
will be much lighter tasks. 

Giving Air to the Plants. — We have before spoken of 
the n'eed of the roots for air. Tf the ground has been 
well prepared the only cultivation needed for this pur- 
pose will be the breaking up of the crusts which some- 



68 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

times form on the surface. There is not much danger 
that soil in the proper condition for planting will settle 
about the roots closely enough to smother them unless 
there should come a long, wet spell to make the ground 
soggy and heavy. Even then if the field is well drained 
the water will be carried away before it does much 
damage. For the purpose of supplying air to the plant 
roots, then, as well as for weed-killing, only shallow cul- 
tivation is necessary. 

Need of Moisture. — It seems a little strange to talk 
of saving moisture after saying so much about the need 
for drainage to carry water away. But you have heard 
that it is possible to have too much of a good thing, and 
while some moisture is a very good thing indeed, too 
much of it is very decidedly a bad thing. A soil full of 
moisture lets no air to the plant roots and drowns them 
as surely as though they were children with their heads 
under water. The drains carry off only the surplus, 
and after all the water that will do so has run off there 
is still plenty left for the plants. This moisture is what 
the plants need and what we want to save. It clings 
about the soil particles and dissolves out of them the 
plant foods they hold, putting it into "solution," which, 
as we have learned, is the only form in which the plant 
can take its nourishment. Running water does not wait 
to do this, so the plant gets little good of it. Besides, it 
goes so fast that the rootlets do not have time to absorb 
it, while the "film moisture" as that moisture is called 



TAKING CARE OF THE CROP 69 

which clings to the soil particles, gives them plenty of 
time to take it up. 

How Film Moisture Dries Up and Hozv It May Be 
Saved. — Try this little experiment to help you under- 
stand film moisture better. Take a handful of pebbles 
and put them into a basin of water. Then drain off all 
the water you can. The pebbles will still be wet, for 
some of the water will stick to them. If they are left 
out in the air they will soon dry off, but if they are cov- 
ered with a thick blanket they will stay moist for a long 
time. There is air all about the pebbles under the 
blanket but it does not dry them. It takes heated or 
moving air to do that, and the air under the blanket is 
still. 

Now imagine these pebbles to be very, very small — so 
small that you do not call them pebbles any more, but 
speak of them as particles of clay or sand. The water 
that soaks down through the soil wets them and then 
drains away. But some of it sticks to them and be- 
comes film moisture. So long as we can keep heated or 
moving air away from them we can save this moisture 
for the use of our young plants. 

So long as these particles remain below the surface 
the heat of the sun will not affect the air between them. 
Warm air rises, as you have noticed when you have held 
your hand above a heated stove. So when the air be- 
tween the soil particles becomes warmed by the sun it 
begins to move upward, following little channels like 



70 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

very tiny chimneys. Finally it makes its way through 
the soil to the very top. As it passes the moist soil 
particles it takes the film moisture with it in the shape 
of vapor, just as the moving- air outside dried your 
pebbles by evaporation. If we let this moving, warm 
air continue to pass to the outside it will finally carry all 
the film moisture with it and the plants will die of thirst. 

But how are we going to help it? Simply by block- 
ing the passages so the moisture-laden air cannot escape. 
If we stir the top soil once in a while the air passages will 
l)e broken and filled up and the moisture will be kept un- 
der ground where it is needed. Of course the air will 
go right to work to find new passages, but an occasional 
stirring of the top soil will destroy them about as fast 
as they are made. 

Why Deep Cultivation May Be Harinful. — It is plain 
enough to see why deep cultivation in a dry season is 
harmful. It brings the soil particles to the top and al- 
lows them to dry off in the wind and sun. A thin layer 
of dry soil on top acts like a blanket and holds the 
moisture below where the plants can reach it. This is 
the "dust mulch" you have heard your father talk about. 

Keeping the Seed-Bed Warm. — If you dip your hand 
in water and hold it up in the air it feels cokl. That is 
because the moisture on it is evaporating. If you cover 
it with a towel it feels warm again. That is because 
the evaporation has ceased. In die same way evapo- 
ration from the soil cools that part of the soil from 



TAKING CARE OF THE CROP 71 

which evaporation takes place. Checking- this evapora- 
tion not only checks such cooling of the surface soil 
but conserves the moisture for the growing crop. 
Therefore it is not hard to understand how cultivation 
helps to make a warm seed-bed for the growing plants. 

Nezu Food for the Plant. — When a plant has taken 
up all the food it r "^ "" 

can reach it has to 
send new roots out 
to hunt for more. 
If fresh soil can be 
thrown about the 
plant it brings a 
new food supply in f"^ 
easy reach. This is fe-'^ -^ ^ 
another thing that '""' ^ " "^ ^""^ 

cultivation does. This must, however, be done while 
the plants are comparatively small for if the roots are 
injured the working of the soil does more harm than 
good. Plants like beets or turnips, whose main root 
reaches straight down, may not be harmed by deep cul- 
tivation after they have grown quite large; but corn, 
whose fine rootlets soon fill the ground in every direc- 
tion, lying within two or three inches of the surface, 
must have very shallow cultivation after the first few 
plowings. 

Frequency of Cultivating. — The number of times a 
crop needs cultivating depends entirely upon the season 




72. FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

and the condition of the soil. If the ground is quite 
free from weeds and the soil fine and mellow, there seems 
to be no good reason for disturbing it except to preserve 
the moisture and bring new food within reach of the 
plants. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

1. Remember: 

That preparation is more important than cultivation. 

That shallow cultivation is best for most plants except right at 
first. 

That proper care will produce a pretty good crop, even in a 
poor season. 

2. Answer these questions : - 

A gravelly or coarse, sandy soil usually needs cultivating more 
frequently than a clay soil, especially in a dry season. Why? 

Explain why you can make your soil warmer by cultivating it. 

Give three good reasons for shallow cultivation of corn. 

Would you follow a different method of cultivating in a wet 
season from that in a dry one? 

How would you cultivate a potato crop? Give reasons for all 
statements. 




Harvesting the Crop from "The Plant that Clothes the World" 



CHAPTER XI 



COTTON 



Relation of Clothing to Civilization. — Before people 
become civilized they care more about their food than 
they do about their clothing. We know this is true for 
there are yet many tribes of uncivilized people who care 
very little about what they wear and who need very few 
garments, yet they are very careful to supply themselves 
with plenty of food to eat. Probably thousands of years 
ago the whole earth was inhabited with people much like 
these. But as the world became more and more enlight- 
ened the use of clothing increased and people began to 
look about for materials that would make a fiber which 
could be woven into cloth. In course of time several 

7i 




74 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

such materials were 
found, chief among them 
being wool, cotton, flax 
and silk. 

First Cultivation of 
Cotton. — No one knows 

certainly where the cotton plant was first cul- 
tivated. History tells us that the people of 
southern Asia used it as many as 4,000 years 
ago. The first explorers of America found a 
"queer, wooly plant" in Brazil, from which the 
natives made cloth, and which was undoubtedly 
cotton.^ 

People Slozv to Use Cotton. — For many cen- 
turies after cotton was first used, however, 
most clothing had to be made of wool, flax and 
silk, although cotton cloth was better for many 
purposes and in many climates. It was a great 
task to get the seeds out of the fleecy bolls and 
to get the fiber ready for the spinner and 
weaver. All the seeds had to be picked out by 

1 While digging down to expose a buried prehistoric village 
near Santa Fe, N. M., the workmen struck the top of a wall. 
Digging about the lower wall revealed that there were two 
buried villages, one just below the other. The first village was 
doubtless buried before the second was built — and the second 
was buried so long ago that there is no history of it. In a 
dry cave down at the depth of the lower village was found / 

a human skeleton, and about the bones were some pieces of cot- -p First 
ton cloth, and some pieces of a robe made of some kind of fur. Spinner 




COTTON 



75 



hand ; and if you want to know how hard a task that was, 
just try picking the seeds out of fifty bolls of cotton. 

Inz'cntion of the Cotton Gin. — But people went on 
picking the seeds out in the same slow, troublesome way 
for many centuries. Many men studied the problem 
seriously, but no one found a better way to do the work 
until a little over a hundred years ago Eli Whitney, a 
young man from Massachusetts living in Georgia, in- 
vented a machine that would separate the seeds from the 
lint much better and more rapidly than could be done 
in the old way by hand. At first people would hardly be- 
lieve this could be done 
by machinery, and men 
came hundreds of miles 
to see if the machine 
would really do what 
they had heard. When 
they found it could clean 
as much cotton in one 
day as one hundred men 
could do with their hands they went back to their homes 
and began urging every one to raise cotton. 

Increased Production of Cotton. — It was but a few 
years until cotton gins could be found in every cotton 
growing section in the United States. The amount of 
cotton raised at first hardly kept the gins busy, but soon 
most of the southern farmers began to plant cotton. 
Cotton cloth became much cheaper than ever known be- 




The Whitney Cotton Gin 



76 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



fore and hundreds of times as much was sold. Foreign 
countries wanted cotton, too, so the Southern States had 
the job of supplying not only our own markets, but of 
raising cotton to be exported to nearly every civilized 
country of the old world as well. 

TJic South, the Land of Cotton. — No country in the 
world produces as much cotton as our own Southern 
States. The climate is suitable for it, and the moisture 
supply is just about what is needed. Cotton must have 

a long, sunny season, and 
should not have too much 
rainfall, as too frequent 
or heavy rains damage the 
crop. Both these condi- 
tions are met almost per- 
fectly in the States lying 
south of a line drawn east 
and west through Ten- 
nessee's northern border. 
The Question of Soil 
for Cotton. — The ques- 
tion that troubles the cot- 




CoTTON Plant 



ton grower is not climate 
Although our 



but soil 

climate is suitable, in many places the soil must be cul- 
tivated with a great deal of care to get good crops of 
cotton. As a general thing almost any well-drained soil 
can be put into condition to raise a good cotton crop. 



COTTON jj 

There is an old saying that "cotton must not stand with 
wet feet," and this must be remembered by all who wish 
to raise it successfully. 

The Best Soil for Cotton. — Cotton does not need an 
extremely rich soil. Where the ground is too rich the 
plant is likely to go too much to stalk and leaves and will 
not bear fruit very heavily. If there is too much moist- 
ure in the ground, as" frequently happens with very rich 
soils, there is danger that the bolls will rot and that 
fungous diseases will attack the plant. An ideal soil 
for cotton is a sandy loam, not too rich, with a clay sub- 
soil. This makes a good soil, because, while cotton can 
not stand too much water about its roots, there must be 
a reserve supply on which it can draw in dry weather. 
The sandy soil allows the water to drain away from the 
roots, while the clay soil below it does not let it go so far 
but that the roots can get it in a dry time when they 
need it. 

Plowing Cotton Land. — Cotton land should be plowed 
in the fall. This gives the soil-builders, frost and air, a 
chance to work at it and put it into good mechanical 
condition for the crop. If the land is not well drained 
it should be thrown up in ridges to make sure that no 
water can stand about the plants. Just before planting, 
the seed-bed should be put into good condition, as de- 
scribed for other crops. 

Fertilizing the Soil. — Cotton uses great quantities of 
the three important fertilizing elements, nitrogen, potash 



78 FIEI.D LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

and phosphorus, b^or this reason it is very necessary to 
practice a good crop rotation wherever cotton is grown, 
or the ground will become exhausted and refuse to make 
good yields, just as it does when corn is raised on the 
same land too many years in succession. Most of the 
fertility which the cotton plant takes from the soil is 
stored in the seed and stalks, as the lint itself does 
not make a very heavy draft upon the soil. So where 
the stalks are turned under and the seed is returned to 
the land either in the way of manure, by being fed to 
stock, or directly as cotton-seed meal, m^t very much is 
lost after all. In this way most of the fertility is kept in 
the soil, and good crops may be raised year after year by 
practicing the proper rotation. 

Enemies of the Cotton Plant. — Every crop has its ene- 
mies, and cotton has some 
that are very destructive. 
Some of these enemies are 
insects, others are dis- 
eases. The most dreaded 
of the diseases are an- 
thracnose or boll-rot, rust 
and wilt. Good seed, 
clean cultivation, rotation 
with such crops as wheat, 
Boll Weevil cowpcas, grasses or vel- 

vet beans, with the proper 
use of fertilizers, are the 







n.-pt. of .it^ii.uii, 



(Showing back view, side view and VCt bcaUS, with the proper 
back with wings expanded.) 



COTTON 79 

best methods of fighting disease. Varieties of cotton have 
been developed by careful selection that are able to resist 
the attacks of most diseases if the soil is cultivated prop- 
erly. The farmer's greatest care, therefore, must be in the 
preparation of his seed bed and the selection of his seed. 

The Boll Weevil. — The worst enemy to the cotton 
crop is the boll weevil. This is comparatively a new- 
comer in this country, as it was rarely heard of until a 
few years ago. But so rapid was its progress after it 
did arrive that it has al)out taken possession of much of 
the cotton-raising area. It feeds wholly upon cotton, 
but, like most other insects, can live through the winter 
without food and come out in the spring ready to begin 
operations. 

Fighting the Boll Weevil zvith Early Maturing Cot- 
ton. — Early maturing cotton helps to keep the weevil in 
check as it springs up and is out of the way before the 
young weevils of the late summer hoards are ready to at- 
tack it. So farmers in the weevil-infested territory 
should always plant a kind of cotton that matures early, 
and should hasten the maturity as much as possible by 
using fertilizers containing a high per cent, of phos- 
phates. They can help, too, by seeing that the ground is 
in the best possible condition for early planting. 

Fighting the Boll Weevils by Destroying Them. — 
Another good way to fight the boll weevil is to pick up 
and destroy as many of the fallen squares as possible. 
As the weevil may hatch five generations in a season, a 



8o FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



few destroyed at the beginning means reduction by hun- 
dreds at the end of the season. As soon as the wee- 
vil begins work the square, or immature boll, in 

which it lays its eggs 
is loosened and falls. 
A good plan is to 
fasten a stick or a 
piece of brush to the 
cultivator handles 
when going through 
the crop, so that it will 
knock off as many of 
the affected bolls as 
possible, and these 
should be gathered 
and burned. By keep- 
ing this work up 




Dept. of Agriculture 

Cotton Squares 

(It is in the square, or young boll, that the 

Boll weevil deposits its egg.) 



through the season a 



good crop may be 
made in spite of the 
weevil. Burning the stalks in the fall also helps, but this 
must be done before the frost drives the insects into win- 
ter quarters.^ 

To Make Cotton Planting Profitable. — Properly man- 
aged, cotton farming will continue to be one of the most 
profitable industries of the Southern States. But unless 
all means are employed to keep the soil from becoming 



1 See Farmers' Bulletin No. 457. 



COTTON 8i 

exhausted, there is danger that it may become a curse 
instead of a blessing. Rotation, stock feeding and 
winter cover crops to keep the soils from washing are 
very important in preserving the fertility of the land. 
In other words, the same principles of good farming that 
are applied to the raising of other crops must be prac- 
ticed in raising cotton. When these are carried out, 
there is no greater opportunity than that offered to the 
southern farmer by the "plant that clothes the world." 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

Take the seeds from a pound of seed-cotton and weigh them. 
What part of the cotton crop is seed? 

Go into a field of ripened cotton and choose five plants from 
which you would select seed. See that you select those having the 
longest fiber, the heaviest fruiting and the most even distribution 
of bolls. Would you choose seed-bolls from near the center or 
near the outside of the plant? Why? 




The First Spinning Wheel 



CHAPTER XII 



FRIENDS AND ENEMIES WEEDS 

The Wicked Weeds. — In Chapter X you learned that 
one way of taking- care of the crop was by kilHng" the 

weeds. In fact the worst 
enemies of the growing 
croj) are those plant 
tramps we call weeds. 
They are thieves and mis- 
chief makers, stealing in 
among our grains and 
grasses or flaunting boldly 
in our gardens and corn- 
fields, robbing the soil of 
the food and moisture we 
have been saving for our own growing things. There 
is only one way to fight these impudent rascals and that 
is to fight them with all the might we have. They are 
very cunning, too, and will manage to escape us in many 
ways of which we would never dream, unless we study 
closely their structure and habits. 

Long-Rooted ]Veeds. — Some weeds, like quack-grass 
and Johnson grass, have very long, hardy underground 

82 




Dcpt. of Agriculture 

All-the-Year-Round Weed-Killers 



FRIENDS AND ENEMIES— WEEDS 



83 



root stems that are almost impossible to get out of the 
soil. If even one little joint of this stem is left in the 
ground the plant will continue to grow as if nothing had 
ever happened. Sometimes they run along under ground 
for many feet, sending up new shoots 
from every joint. In this way a single 
plant will soon spread over a large area. 
Hozv to Fight Long-Rooted Weeds. 
— It is very hard to get rid of such 
weeds if they get a good start. No 
plant, however hardy, can grow if it is 
not allowed to make leaves. This is be- 
cause the food the plant must have is 
"digested," or turned to usable material, 
in the leaves. So if the top is kept cut 
off the plant will starve to death in time, 
though where the roots or stems are 
thick and fleshy they can live a long time 
on the food that is stored in them. It is 
plain to see that the best crop to raise on couc h 
a piece of land infested with such weeds 
is one that requires frequent cultivation. 
It is a good thing when preparing the ground to gather 
up and burn all the roots that are turned out by the plow 
and harrow. Every root thus disposed of means so 
many fewer weeds to watch. This work must be done 
very thoroughly, and sometimes must be kept up for 
several years, to make the job complete. By far the 




Gra s s. 
Grass. 
Showing roots and 
jointed rootstock. 



vvist'sl lliiii<4" lo do is to watch onr lii'lds carclullv every 
year and see that no siicli weeds ij;et a I'ootliold in 
tlieni. 

// V('</.v ■:<'illi I'rd/licry .Wwds. — Anotlier class of weeds 
that is very hard to (iL;hl is that to whicli the well-known 
|)rickly lellnce. ( anada thistle and 
dandelion hcloni;". 1 hesi' weeds have 
phniied seeds that are easily earried 
hy the wind. A single i)lant of 
prickly let t nee is estimated to produce 
S,()()() seeils. If e\'en one tenth of 
these t;"row what an immense amount 
of (lama,i;"e is done hy Icltinj^^ even one 
plant <;() to seed! As they hear their 
hlossoms steadily from early summer 
till frost, they send out see(ls under 
e\'ery condition, and manv (d' them 
are sure to live. 

/'///////'//// /'/•/( A'/y Ia'IIucc aihi Kin- 
dred 11 '(•('(is.— i )( course, such weeds 
should ne\'er he allowed to run to seed. 
Some larmi-rs carelessly plow them 
under, with their thousands (d" ripe seeds, thus sowinj^" 
trouhle Tor theurselxes, their neii;hl)ors, and their de- 
scendants. As these weeds ha\e \'erv strong", deep \'cvd- 
ini;- roots, ihev, as well as the Johnson .and (|uack grasses, 
must he fought root and hranch. Such iLjrains as wheat 
or oats should not he sown where ihcy have gotten a 




Mull. .iK'irullunil Colin. 
l'lU( KI.V I .1: Til UK 



FRIENDS AND ENEMIES— WEEDS 85 



start, nor should land be run in pasture where they are 
found abundantly. Cultivated or hoed erops are the 
only ones for fields so infested. 

Watch the Fence-Corners. — Not only should llie 
weeds in the fields themselves be f()u<;ht, bul none should 
be allowed even in the fence-corners or out-of-the-way 
places. Iwen if they did no other dania.qe — which they 
do — the roots of fence-corner weeds draw food and 
moisture out of the soil about them, and rob the crop 
so it will not do well for some distance back from the 
edge. You have doubtless often noticed that grain near 
the edges of some fields is 
not so thrifty as that near 
the center. If you had 
looked for them you would 
probably have seen a hedge 
of weeds growing up about 
the outside. ^Fhe idea that 
fence-corners do not need 
any attention is all wrong. 
It is best to have straight 
wire fences, as there will 

1 r t 1 Canada Tmisti.e Showing Mktiiod 

be few corners and less ^^ spreading by Root-Stems 
space to be gone over when 
weed killing is on hand. 

The Easiest Time to Get Rid of JJ^eeds. — When a 
new weed first makes its appearance in a country it is a 
very easy matter to get rid of it. If the first American 




86 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

farmer who found Canada thistles in his imported wheat 
had spent a few days digging them up and destroying the 
roots, what a vast amount of money and work would 
have been saved! Now thousands of dollars are spent 
every year, and severe laws have been passed, but the 
Canada thistle still has the best of the 
bargain in many sections, and is slowly, 
but surely, making its way into every cul- 
tivated corner of the United States. 

Value of a Knozvledge of Weeds. — For 
this reason every farmer should know 
enough about plants to be able to recog- 
nize any strange plant that may appear 
on his farm. If he finds one that he 
does not know to be useful in some way 
he should spare no pains nor labor to de- 
stroy it. Any farmer may send to his 
State Agricultural College, or to the 
United States Department of Agriculture 
ussiAN HisTLE ^^ Washiugtou, any weeds suspected of 
being harmful and from these sources he may find out 
what they are and how to make war upon them. Both 
these institutions — the State Agricultural College and 
the United States Department of Agriculture — publish 
bulletins from time to time that are of great value in 
weed warfare. They will be glad to send these bulletins 
to any one who asks for them. Remember that any 
method must be persisted in a long time if it is to do any 




FRIENDS AND ENEMIES— WEEDS 87 

real good. A little carelessness will undo many months 
of hard work. 

Useful Weeds. — There are some weeds whose roots, 
flowers or leaves are valuable as medicines. A list of 
these may be had by writing to Washington for Farmers' 
Bulletin No. 188. Any boy or girl who wishes to do so 
may make a little money by collecting and preparing the 
useful parts for market. It is not likely one could get 
very rich doing this, but the study of plant life alone 
pays well for the work, and tlie money that one can get 
out of them is just so much clear gain. So it is worth 
trying. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

1. Find and identify five harmful weeds. Tell how you judge 
they can best be fought. 

2. In how many ways are the weeds about your home farm dis- 
tributed ? 

3. Would you fight cockleburs and Johnson grass in the same 
way? Give reasons for your answer. 

4. Name five wild plants that you would not class as weeds. 
Why not? 




>. / 



Feathered Friends and Helpers 



CHAPTER XIII 



FRIENDS AND ENEMIES BIRDS AND INSECTS 

Good and Bad Birds and Bugs. — There are both 
friends and enemies among birds and insects. In this 
respect they differ from the weeds, which are all on the 
unfriendly list. Some birds and bugs do a great deal of 
good and only a little harm, others do much good and 
no harm at all, while still others may be classed as en- 
tirely harmful. As a whole our bird neighbors are our 
friends, while the insects that find homes in our fields 
and gardens are likely to cause us trouble. 

The Quail. — The greatest blame laid upon the birds is 

their injury to crops. Rut while people are talking 

about that they should not forget to mention that every 

88 



BIRDS AND INSECTS 



89 



bird destroys insects that might have damaged the crop 
far more than the bird has done. Then, too, while many 
birds Hke corn and wheat, 
they Hke weed seeds just 
about as well and eat great 
quantities of those that 
would otherwise take root 
and grow. This is espe- 
cially true of the quail, 
which more than pays for 
the grain it eats by ridding 
us of weeds, to say noth- 
ing of the potato bugs and 
other destructive insects 
that it consumes in enorm- 
ous numbers. The an- 
nual slaughter of these 
beautiful and friendly lit- 
tle birds is paving the way for much trou1)le with the 
foes they would destroy for us, and every thoughtful 
farmer will do his best to check it. 

The Blue Jay. — One of the most heartily disliked of 
our birds is the blue jay. He is accused of nearly every 
crime in the catalogue, from the pilfering of grain and 
fruit to housebreaking and rank cannibalism. Perhaps 
his impudent noisiness has been taken as a mark of his 
character, and this may be true to a great extent; but it 
is certain that he has been accused of much that he never 




Dc[>t. of /Igruiiltiirc 

Quail 
(Destroys insects in summ 
weed seed in winter.) 



and 



90 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



thought of doing-. Like all other chatterers who make 
themselves conspicuous by loud, unmannerly ways, he has 
lain himself liable to be slandered. Among other crimes, 
he has been accused of breaking up the nests of other 

birds and eating both eggs 
and young. But out of 
292 stomachs of blue jays 
examined only three held 
any traces of eggs and 
barely two showed any re- 
mains of young birds. 
This proves that at least 
one of the blue jay's 
crimes is not so prevalent 
as it has been made to ap- 
pear. 

iUit he does steal corn, 
and that annoying habit, 
together with the e(|ually 
annoying one of pecking 
holes in our finest apples and pears and helping him- 
self freely to our most delicious grapes and berries, 
puts him on the farmer's black list of thieves and mis- 
chief-makers. Yet a close study of his habits dis- 
closes the fact that "the greater part of the corn was 
eaten during the first five months of the year, little being 
taken after May, even in harvest time, when it is abund- 
ant." This indicates that most of the corn is gleaned 




Ui'l^t. of .Igriculture 

Blue Jay 



BIRDS AND INSECTS 



Qi 



in the fields long after harvest, and is waste grain, 
except what is stolen from cribs or gathered in May 
at planting time. 

For all his mischief the jay does the farmer some good 
service that he seldom gets credit for. He is very fond 
of wire-worms and caterpillars, as well as of grass- 
hoppers, and saves far more corn than he eats by killing 
thousands of these pests every season. What would 
happen to our grain fields if there were none of these 
bold hunters to keep such foes in check it is not easy to 
imagine. Yet when the little soldier takes pay for his 
services he is called a rascal and is hunted relentlessly. 
Some of his ways are pro- 
voking, but after all he does 
far more good than harm 
and should be given credit 
for his good deeds as well 
as charged with his evil 
ones. 

The Crozv. — What has 
been said about the jay ap- 
plies with equal truth to a 
number of other birds 
usually called harmful. 
Even that ebony rascal, the crow, is far from being as 
black as he is painted. He pays well for the young corn 
he pulls by destroying thousands of wire-worms and 
cut-worms, as well as grubs, mice and caterpillars. His 




Dept. of Agiiculture 

The Crow 



92 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



mischief is done for a short time early in the season, as 
he is partial only to the softened grain he finds soon after 
planting, lie does not eat dry grain at all, so his corn- 
stealing does not last long, while his bug-catching goes 
on all summer. 

Blackbirds. — Rlackbirds, too, with the exception of 

1 the crow blackbird, or pur- 
ple grackle, are usually 
blamed far more than they 
deserve. The crow black- 
bird, however, seems to be 
an unmitigated villain, and 
does perhaps more harm 
than p-ood. lie does not 

\l \Ij0^9^'^.J3^^\. confine his thievery to the 

soft kernels of. sprouting 
corn, but steals great quan- 
tities of wheat and other 
grains and pays his bills 
very scantily in the number 
of bugs he eats. 
Hawks and Sparrows. — Of our other common birds, 
only some hawks and the English sparrow seem to have 
no claims upon our gratitude. The hawk does some 
small service in the way of catching mice and weasels, 
but he also preys heavily upon our friendly birds, killing 
them or driving them away. The English sparrow does 
this, too, besides being an incorrigible little grain thief 




£)clH. of Agricnlliirc 

The Meadow Lark 



BIRDS AND INSECTS 



93 




and an all-round scamp. If he so far forgets himself as 

to do a decent deed or two he immediately forfeits our 

thanks by a series of 

small meannesses that 

we can hardly forgive. 

He is a regular little 

feathered tramp and 

should receive very little 

favorable consideration. 

The Birds Our 
Friends. — With these 
few exceptions we are 
safe in considering the 
birds as our friends. It 
is far greater wisdom to 
protect them and let them 
do police work among the bugs than to kill or drive them 
away and then have to fight the bugs ourselves. A 
single bird will kill more bugs in a season than half 
a dozen boys, and what do his small wages amount to 
beside what the boys would charge? We could not ex- 
pect boys to work for nothing — is it fair to expect the 
birds to do so? 

Insects. — When we come to consider insects we do 
not find so many friends, although there are some that 
are very helpful. Fortunately, most helpful insects are 
not much harmed by the birds. Most prominent among 
our friendly insects are the little spotted lady-bird, the 



Dept. of Agriculture 

The English Sparrow 

(A foreign bird without redeeming 

virtues.) 




<^V,v ,■;>'' 



(j.| |<|ia.l) \A)\<i: l-OK VOUNC I<ARM1{RS 

wasp like irluu'union lly, tin- lii^cr I)ccllcs, most of the 
o round iKTlk's and all classes of bees. Wasps, like 

some of llie birds, do'about 
as much harm as s;ood, and 
t /(* j: -A are, moreover, \erv nn- 
( A? Lji pleasant neii;lil)ors. Some 
-- '^ ^kv iiim^ct friends help by prey- 
'•^"'* ''"^'* ini;- npon oilier insects that 

'I'liri'i- lil'i' sl;i);i's ;nul nioiilli p.irls. ' , . , , ., - 

are liarmlul, while others, 
like the bees, are chielly helpful in pollen-carryinj;', al)ont 
which more w ill be said latci". 

Ants and ani^lewoiiiis lu'lp in ket^pini;- the soil lij^ht and 
loose, while some ot the crickets perlorm the same serv- 
ice. 

The Toad. — One of onr best friends is neither a bird 
nor an insect ; he is the linmble, homely little toack h'.ach 
one ("i^ these little creatures is estimated to be worth 
twcMilx' dollars to the farmer on acconnt o{ the i;reat 
nnmbers of harmful insects he devours. y\s the toad has 
no injurious habits, he may be placed \ery hii^h on our 
list of friends. 

Conclusion. — To snmmai'i/.e, we may say that nearly 
all birds and very few insects are friendly to the farmer. 
A close studv slKHild be made o{ the habits of all birds 
and insects we lind about our premises, and we should 
take care to i)unish no creature for crimes committed by 
some other. We need all the help these little friends 
can i^ixc us, and should care for and protect them. 



BIRDS AND INSECTS 



95 



SOME THINGS TO DO 

Make a list of all the birds you know and tell from your own 
observations whether to class each as a friend or a foe. 

Make a similar list of insects. 

1 low may birds be protected? What can )ou do to help take 
care of them? 

Try taming a toad by feedinjj^ him Hies and bugs regularly every 
day. Watch him and see what you can learn of his habits. 




The DicKCissEL 



CHAPTER XIV 

PLANT DISEASES 

Fungi. — Most plant diseases are caused by minute 
growths called fungi. This does not mean that all fungi 
are small, for some, like lichens and mushrooms, are of 
considerable size. Those fungi that affect other plants 
in the form of disease are, however, so very tiny that 
they would never be recognized as plants without the 
aid of a microscope. But plants they are, though they 
have neither roots nor stems, leaves nor blossoms. 
Without these parts they can not take up food elements 
in the usual way, l)ut must depend upon plants of the 
higher orders to get their food ready for them. They 
get this food by fastening themselves to their ''hosts," 
as the higher plants are called, and robbing them of 
what they had prepared for their own use. Therefore 
these fungi may be considered robbers as much as the 
weeds ; perhaps even more so, as they not only take what 
was prepared for other plants, but take it after the plants 
had made it ready for themselves. 

Spores. — As it has no flowers a fungus can produce 
no seeds. In place of these it has great quantities of 

96 



PLANT DISEASES 97 

very small bodies called spores. You might hold ten 
thousand spores on the point of your knife-blade without 
being able to see that you had anything but a tiny speck 
of dust. When the spore is ripe it separates itself from 
its parent fungus and goes floating about in the air. It 
is so light that it is not likely to settle, but floats until 
a current of air brings it in contact with some plant, or 
other body, to which it adheres. If the body is of the 
right kind the spore at once begins to grow. If not it 
very quickly dies. Spores of the kind we are discussing 
find homes only on certain kinds of living plants. 

Growth of Spores. — We can not say a spore takes 
root, since it has no root. What it does is send out 
a tiny thread or two — sometimes more — which strikes 
down into the cell walls, or into the breathing pores, of 
the leaf or stem upon which the spore has settled, and 
takes up the food substances which the plant carries in 
its sap. These threads grow rapidly and separate into 
many branches, just as do the roots of plants of the 
higher orders. After a day or two new sporestalks 
appear, bearing heads called sporangia. These soon 
ripen and burst, sending out thousands of new spores 
to attack other plants. 

Fungus Diseases. — Some of the most widely known 
fungus diseases that attack our crops are smut, rust, 
blight and scab. Mildew, black knot and other dis- 
eases of trees are also caused by fungi. Since grain 
crops are affected principally by rust and smut, these 



98 FIET.D LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

two may be called the most important diseases of this 
class. 

Rust. — Rust on wlieat or oats may Ijc seen early in 
the season as a reddish brown patch on the stem or 
leaves. It is most likely to appear when the weather is 
warm and moist. The brown spots are masses of spores 
from the rust plant, a fungus so small that its structure 
can be seen only through the microscope. A stalk of 
wheat attacked by these rust plants must feed both them 
and its own growth, and unless it is unusually strong 
and vigorous it will not be able to meet both demands 
and will dwindle and stop growing. If it produces any 
grain at all, which is not likely, it will be shrivelled and 
poor. 

Black Rust Spores. — Later on the red rust spores give 
place to black ones. These are called "resting spores," 
and are the ones the fungus provides to live over winter. 
Cold weather would kill the thin-walled red spores, but 
the black ones are protected l)y a thicker covering, and 
do not mind the frost. As the black spores scatter they 
must find some host to live on until the wheat begins to 
grow again. It was thought for a long time that no 
plant but the barberry would carry the spores over the 
winter, but as rust is found in many places where the 
barl)erry was never heard of, it seems certain that the 
spores must live on other plants, probably some of the 
weeds that are found about the grain fields. In the 
spring, when warm, moist weather comes, the black 



PLANT DISEASES 99 

spores begin to grow and to send out new ones — red 
ones — again. These once more attack the growing 
grains and the story is repeated. 

How to Deal zvith Rust. — There seems to be no rem- 
edy for rust when it once gets started. It can be largely 
prevented by keeping all weeds out that might harbor 
the spores over winter, and by using only seed that will 
produce plants too strong and vigorous to be affected 
easily by disease. Weak plants are much more likely 
to become the prey of fungi than strong ones. A thor- 
ough test of all seeds used for planting will show which 
will produce the most healthy, thrifty plants. If 
there has been trouble from rust the previous season it 
is certainly poor policy to plant any seeds but the 
best. 

Smut. — Smut is another fungus disease affecting 
grains. It may be seen upon corn in great masses of 
black powder, usually where the ears ought to be. In 
wheat it attacks the kernel, and we find, instead of the 
floury substance with which the kernel should be filled, a 
great mass of black dust. Or it may destroy both the 
grain and the chaff, turning the whole wheat head to 
powder. Where it affects only the kernel it is called 
"hard smut" ; where the whole head is affected it is called 
"loose smut." 

Smut Spores. — Each of these minute powder grains 
is a spore. Unlike the spores of rust those of smut will 
live a long time anywhere that it is dry. They will 



100 FFKI.D LORl^: FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



stay on the seed all winter, and start when it begins to 
germinate, growing as the plant grows and using a 
great part of the food needed by the plant. Except in 
the case of corn-smut the spores must enter the plant 
shortly after the seed sprouts. Corn-smut, however, can 
enter the tissues of the corn plant at any time while it 
is growing. 

How to Deal zvitli Smut. — Smut, like rust, can hardly 
be remedied after it once gets started. It may be pre- 
vented by using no seed from fields where the disease 
has been seen, and by planting only in ground known to 
l)e free from it. If one is not sure about the seed, or 

if it is not possible to get seed 
known to be unaffected, the 
clinging spores may be killed by 
soaking the seed in a formalin 
solution before planting. This 
solution is made by putting one 
])ound of formalin into fifty 
gallons of water. Every part 
of the grain should be moist- 
ened with this or some of the 
spores will escape and make 
trouble. 

Corn Smut. — Even the form- 
alin solution will not insure 
corn against snuit, as corn smut does not necessarily 
enter the plant through the kernel. About the only 




Dc/'f. of Aiirkulturc 

Corn Stalk Showing 
Smut-Boils 




PLANT DISEASES loi 

way to deal with corn-smut is to gather and burn all 
smut "boils," as the masses of spores are called, and to 
plant in ground that has not had any infected crop on it 
for many years. 

Scab and Blight. — Scab and blight are fungus diseases 
attacking potatoes. Seal) affects the tu1)cr itself, making 
it rough and unsightly and causing 
it to rot quickly. It may be pre- 
vented by soaking the seed potatoes 
in the formalin solution. Blight at- 
tacks the leaves and stems of the 
plants and must be treated with a Scabby Potato 

spray that touches the affected parts, ^'^f', 'Jus^attlcL '* °^ 
A blight-stricken plant shows the dis- 
ease first by a withering and curling of the leaves. It 
may be checked if taken in hand immediately by gather- 
ing and burning all leaves that look drooped. Potatoes 
from blighted plants rot very quickly. They will not 
do for shipping or storage and are almost an entire loss. 

Treatment of Plant Diseases. — About the only suc- 
cessful way to treat diseases is to prevent them. Un- 
affected seed and clean soil are absolutely necessary to 
make sure of a healthy crop. Nothing but the strong- 
est seed should be used, as a weak plant is almost sure 
to suffer from some form of disease, while a strong one 
is able to keep ahead of it by vigorous growth. Most 
important of all, weeds from infected fields should al- 
ways be cut and burned, both for the purpose of destroy- 



102 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

ing their own seeds and for the destruction of any spores 
that may have lodged upon them. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

Examine a grain stalk that is affected by rust. What damage 
has it suffered? 

In what ways may rust and smut spores be scattered ? 

Why are fungus diseases less likely to attack crops grown in 
new ground than those grown in old fields? 

Find a corn stalk that has a smut-boil on it and tell how the 
stalk appears. 

Examine a potato that has scab spots on it. Whv will it rot 
more quickly than one that has a smooth, unbroken skin? 

Explain how spores and seeds are alike. IIow are they differ- 
ent? 



CHAPTER XV 

now TO GET GOOD SFCED 

Selecting Seed. — Although the plant docs the very best 
it can to furnish us with strong, vigorous seed, we may 
still further improve the quality of our crops by plant- 
ing only those seed which come from the very best plants. 
Poor seed, from any cause whatever, means a waste 
of ground, time and work. All seed to be used for 
planting should be selected while the plant is growing. 
There is always a difference in plants, even from seed 
that look uniform and have an equal chance. Some will 
come up quicker, grow faster, and have a better color 
than others. These are the plants from which to save 
seed. The only way to know them is to watch them all 
through their time of growth and mark those that seem 
to do the best. 

Plant Selection. — Plant selection should begin when 

the plant is about two weeks out of the ground. Of 

course with small grains, such as wheat and oats, it is 

not possible to keep track of each separate plant, but 

even with them those parts of the field which make the 

best growth may be harvested separately, and the grain 

from them kept for planting. Seed from individual 

103 



104 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

plants are used to start a strain. With corn, l^eans, mel- 
ons and the like a record may be kept of each individual 
plant, showing its progress all through its growth. 

Marking the Plants. — A very good way to mark a 
l)lant is to twist a bit of wire about the stem, with a 
numbered wooden tag on it such as is used for marking 
fruit trees. It should not bind the stem but should l)e 
loose enough to allow for its growth. If it is put on 
above the first pair of leaves it will not get covered up 
with soil. 

Recording the Grades of Plants. — In a little notebook 
make a record of each plant marked. Go over the 
ground every week and jot down the progress your plants 
are making. A system of lettering, such as is used for 
marking standings in school, is very convenient. Let E 
stand for excellent, G for good, P for fair and P for 
poor. Always mark only the very best plants E, and 
use them as a standard by which to measure all the oth- 
ers. By the time a plant gets two or three marks of 
F or P drop it out of the running, for it will pr()bal)ly 
never catch up, and even if it should its seed will not be 
as vigorous as that of the others which made a steadier 
and more even growth. 

Selecting tJie Best Seed. — On a double page of your 
notebook make a chart with blanks enough to record all 
marked plants and their weekly progress. When the 
season is over it will be very easy to know the plants 
you want to save seed from. Only the earliest or finest 



HOW TO GET GOOD SEED 105 

fully matured specimens from these should be consid- 
ered. The earliest melon from the most vigorous vine 
in the patch will be more likely to furnish satisfactory 
seed than a later one even from the same vine, pro- 
vided the one is as desirable as the other in all other re- 
spects. Even from the finest specimens all light, ill- 
formed or immature seeds should be discarded. Only 
those that are plump, large and uniform are worth sav- 
ing. 

Care of Seeds Before Planting. — Seeds should be kept 
in a dry, cool place. It is usually best to keep them 
away from the light. Not many dry seeds, like those 
of the various grains, or those having tough, outer cov- 
erings like melons or pumpkins, are injured by frost, if 
not really frozen; but, of course, potatoes, onions and 
the like must be kept where they are in no danger from 
freezing. 

Getting Ready for Planting. — Several weeks before 
planting time go out into your father's granary and get 
a handful of each of the grains you will probably sow 
this year, such as wheat, oats, rye, buckwheat, etc. Put 
each kind by itself on a smooth, white piece of paper. 
Take the point of a knife and separate the good seeds 
from the poor ones. You can tell the good seeds be- 
cause they are plump and look bright and fresh in color. 
Any that look dull or shrivelled are pretty sure to be 
worthless. 

Folly of Planting Poor Seed. — Would it pay you to 



io6 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

plant seeds from a lot containing a large quantity of 
poor grains? It would be just as sensible -if your 
mother were to prepare a dinner for twenty people and 
then ask only ten to help her eat it. Half of her trouble 
and material would be wasted. When you plant seed 
of which a half, or a third, or a quarter is worthless 
grains you are losing just that part of your work, and 
also of the plant food you have put into the soil so care- 
fully. And you will keep on losing work all the season, 
as it takes just as much time and labor to care for a poor 
stand as for a good one. 

Testing the Seeds. — Even after you have sorted your 
seed samples, and have found out which ones have the 
largest proportion of healthy looking seeds, you can 
find out a great deal more about them by testing them 
and seeing how many will grow well. There will be 
many grains that look all right, yet will, from some 
cause or other, make a poor showing as to germination 
and growth. The only way to be sure about your seed 
is by actual test. 

A Home-Made Seed Tester. — A very good seed tester 

may be made from two 

plates and some blotting 

paper, sawdust, pieces of 

^ flannel or any other ma- 

HoMEMADE Seed Tester ^^^ 

terial that will retam 
moisture. Put a sheet of blotting paper or some saw- 
dust on one of the plates, moistening it well but not 




HOW TO GET GOOD SEED 107 

making it dripping wet. Upon this lay some of the 
seeds you want to test, counting them carefully and 
making a note of the number. About fifty seeds of 
wheat, oats, or rye make a good test. Of such plants as 
melon or squash twenty is enough. Put other pieces 
of blotting paper or more of the saw-dust over the seeds 
and cover with the second plate. Keep in a moderately 
warm place, examining it every day to see that it is 
damp enough. 

Grouping the Seeds. — At the end of the week put the 
sprouted grains out on the table and separate them into 
groups. Into one group put those that have not sprouted 
at all ; into another put those that have grown a little, but 
look weak and sickly; into the third put those that have 
made a strong and vigorous growth. If the last group 
should comprise less than three-fourths of the whole 
number you may conclude that your seed is not very 
good. It would hardly pay you to lose one-quarter of 
your time and effort in caring for just three-fourths of 
a crop. And besides this, to plant such seed would cause 
one-fourth of your land to lie idle. 

Help from Agricultural College. — You have all doubt- 
less seen various testers made for selecting corn for 
seed. If you do not already belong to a Corn Cltlb, 
write to your state Agricultural College for the rules 
which the Corn Club boys follow in seed selection, plant- 
ing and growing. And while we are speaking of that, 
remember that the College has a great deal of material 



io8 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



that will help you to understand farming better, and 
practice it to a better advantage, than you ever have, 
and that much of this will be sent you free for the asking. 

Record of Seven Boys Producing Over 200 Bushels of Corn Per Acre 



Name of club member 



Jerry Moore 

Junius Hill 

Eber Kimbrough. . . . 

Ben Lcath 

J. Jones Polk 

Bennie Beeson 

Walker Lee Dunson. 



Stati 



South Carolina 

Alabama 

...do 

(jeorgia 

Mississippi .... 

...do 

Alal)ama 



]'icld per acre 



Bushels 
228 3/4 
212 1/2 
224 3/4 
2145/7 
2149/10 
227 1/6 
232 7/10 



Cost of pro- 
duction per 
bushel 



Cents 
42.0 
8.6 
19.8 
14.2 
21.4 
14.0 
19.9 



It is interesting to note the following statistics in regard to the 100- 
bushcl boys : 

Number of Corn Club Members in the Southern States Who Have 

Raised 100 or, More Bushels of Corn to the Acre Each Year 

From 1909 to 1914, Inclusive 



1909. 
1910. 
1911. 
1912. 



52 


1913 


171 


1914 


327 




493 





374 

354 



Total 1,771 



SOME THINGS TO DO 

Make a chart that will enable you to keep track of all your seed 
stalks this year. 

Make a test for your seed corn such as is used by the Corn 
Club boys. 



HOW TO GET GOOD SEED 109 

Plan to attend at least one fair this year and see if you can 
tell why the blue ribbons are placed as they will be. 

Write a list of the varieties of corn that won premiums at the 
fair. Did these same varieties win at the Corn Club Contest? 
If you planted these varieties and did not win, why did you not? 

Get from your State Agricultural College a sheet of rules for 
judging corn and apply them to the ears your father has laid up 
for seed. 

Address your letter, — 

State Agricultural College, 



or 
Department of Agriculture, 

Div 

Washington, D. C. 



ciiArTr<:R xvi 

PLANT JUJDIICS 

The Plant Body and Human Body Compared. — The 
j)laiil l)ud\', like the human Ixxly, has different organs to 
peiTorni different kinds of work. J t must be able to take 
up and use food, water and air; it must have a system 
of cireukition so that the food elements may reach all 
the tissues, and it must form and ripen seeds from which 
new plants may be grown. 

Many Parts of Plants. — So we find that even the tini- 
est field and garden plants have a number of different 
organs. Most plants have, as their principal parts, stem, 
root, leaves, flower, fruit and seeds. Each one of these 
parts has a great many subdivisions; the root, for in- 
stance, has rootlets, root-hairs, and root-cap; the leaves 
have breathing ])ores and veins; the flower has petals, a 
pistil, stamens, and so on. Each of these subdivisions 
is a study by itself, and some day we shall learn a great 
deal more about them. 

Plant Cells. — No matter what part of the plant we 
study we find it to be made up of cells. Plant bodies are 
like human bodies in this respect, too, for a human body 
is made up of cells of every shape and size. A cell is a 

no 



PLANT BODIES 



III 



little sac containing" a substance called protoplasm. 
Floating- about in this substance is a tiny speck called 
the nucleus. It is from the nucleus, in some mysterious 
way that no one can quite explain, that growth takes 
place. Both cell and nucleus are generally so very small 
that a powerful microscope is needed to see them. 

Different Kinds of Cells. — There are so many kinds 
of cells that a whole book could hardly tell al)out all of 
them. Some are round, some are ob- 
long, and some, in parts of the plants 
where they are packed very closely to- 
gether, are almost square. A body 
which has a great deal of moisture in 
it, like the potato, is likely to have soft, 
roundish cells, as they have room to ex- 
pand. But the cells in other bodies — 
those in a hickory-nut shell for ex- Potato Starch Cells 
ample — are placed so tightly together that they are 
squeezed into all kinds of shapes, just as a bunch of 
grapes would be if you were to pack them very tightly 
into a box. 

Plant Tubes. — In the softer parts of the plant stems, 
where the cells grow in long rows, one on lop of the 
other, the partition walls between them sometimes give 
way and the cells unite to make tubes. It is through 
these tubes that the sap, which is the life-blood of the 
plant, is carried to different parts of its body. Like the 
cells of which they are formed, these tubes are of many 




112 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

shapes. Some are spiral, some are long rows of rings, 
one above another, and some are covered with little pits. 
The water that is taken up by the plant roots, holding 
the food elements which the plant needs in solution, as 
we learned in another chapter, is taken upward through 
the stem by these tubes and is spread out through the 
veins of the leaves. There the plant food is '"digested," 
or put into such a form that the plant can either use it 
immediately in tissue-building or store it for future use. 
Here, too, the elements which were taken up by the roots 
from the soil are mixed with those taken up by the leaves 
from the air, being united to form the compounds be- 
fore spoken of. Just how this is done we do not quite 
understand, but it is certain that the sunlight has a great 
deal to do with the proper combining of these elements. 
Uses of Tubes to the Plant. — The sap from the root, 
or "root-water," as it is sometimes called, passes upward 
through those tubes which are inside the stem. After 
it is turned into a compound, like sugar, or oil, or cellu- 
lose, it passes down the outer part of the stem by an- 
other set of tubes to the place where it is to be stored. 
The sugar of the potato is carried to its tuber, and con- 
verted into starch, the cellulose of the hickory-nut goes 
largely to the shell, the acid of the apple is stored in the 
fruit, the fat of the cotton plant in the seed, and so on. 
Here it stays until it is again needed for use as food for 
the baby plant in the seed or as food for the parent plant 
itself another year. 



PLANT BODIES 113 

Some Uses of the Roots. — Though the leaves gather 
in some few food elements from the air, most of them 
are taken in by the roots. If you pull up a grass-root, or 
the root of a corn plant, you will see that it is divided 
into a great many parts which grow finer and more 
thread-like the farther we go from the surface of the 
ground. These enable the plant to gather food from a 
much greater area than it could if it had only one root 
stalk. If we examine these thread-like roots we shall see 
that they are covered in places by tiny, hair-like projec- 
tions. These are called root-hairs, and it is through 
them that the plant takes its food from the soil. They 
are really its mouths. They are very delicate and sen- 
sitive and are easily injured if the root is disturbed. 
In cultivating a growing crop great care must be taken 
not to go deep enough to harm these tender roots, for 
without them the plant has no way to gather food and 
can not grow. 

TJie Root Cap. — It would seem as if so tender a root- 
tip might be injured in pushing its way through the soil. 
So, indeed, it might, if it did not have its cap on. This 
cap is made from a few tough old cells that are not easily 
hurt, and it protects the tender "growing point" just back 
of it, where new cells are continually being formed. 

Use of the Leaves. — The leaves are to the plant some- 
thing like your lungs are to you. There are tiny open- 
ings called breathing pores on their under sides which 
allow the plant to take needed elements from the air. 



114 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

The sap from the root is carried upward through 
tubes inside the stem. After reaching the leaves much 
of the water in it escapes into the air, while other parts 
of it combine with raw materials entering the leaves 
from the air, and are made into compounds like starch 
and oil. Some of these comi)()unds are used where 
they are found; others travel for the most part through 
other tubes in the outer part of the stem to other organs, 
often underground, where they are to be used or stored. 

Plant Bodies and Human Bodies. — So you see that the 
plant eats and breathes and has a system of circulation 
a little like your own. It is a living body, just as you are, 
only in a different way. Think of that as you plant and 
care for these beautiful, wonderful children of old 
Mother Nature, and do everything you can to help them 
grow and thrive. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

You know that oil in a lamp is drawn up through the wick. 
Have your teacher explain in what way the action of sap in plants 
is similar. 

Fill a tumhler half full of water which has heen colored red 
with a hit of water color paint. Now make a small sack of oiled 
paper, fill it with clear water, and hang it down in the colored 
water. Watch and see what happens. Tell how you think sap 
action might he like this. 

Set a glass tube down into a tumbler of water and note whether 
in the tube the water seems higher. Do you think sap action in 
the tubes spoken of in this chapter would be at all similar? Give 
reason for your answer. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE LIFE WORK OF THE PLANT 

The Plant Has Its Ozvn Purpose. — We are likely to 
look upon all kinds of plants as having been made for 
no purpose except for the pleasure and profit of man- 
kind. This is not true from the plant's point of view, 
however, as each one of them has a purpose of its own 
from which nothing- can turn it. It is this purpose, and 
no plan for our good at all, that it has had in mind — if 
a plant may be said to have a mind — while it has been 
spreading its leaves and sending out its roots to gather 
in food and moisture from the air and the soil. Al- 
though we may care a great deal for the plant and 
what it does for us, the plant does not worry one bit 
about us so long as it is allowed to carry out its purpose 
unhindered. 

IVhat tlie Plant Lives For. — The plant lives only to 
produce its seeds. When that is done it dies, or at least 
stops work for that season. All the great efforts of its 
life are centered about the little bodies which carry in 
them new germs to gladden the earth after the old plants 
are dead and gone. 

It is to the fulfillment of this purpose the life of the 

115 



ii6 FFKLD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

plant is directed. Under the same conditions the results 
would be uniform. But conditions vary and the varying 
conditions produce variations in root, stem, leaf, flower 
and fruit. In some cases spines or thorns develop to 
protect the plant from its enemies. Other conditions 
bring other variations. Wise men have observed these 
variations and taken advantage of them, and produced 
the conditions that are favorable to the varied form. 
Most of these wise men must have lived in the times 
which we are pleased to call the "Dark Ages," for the 
varieties of plants that give the names to the species had 
been developed before man had become sufliciently en- 
lightened to be able to record what had been done. By 
such a process prehistoric man of America developed 
a wild grass of Mexico into Indian corn of four cdil)le 
varieties, and other plants into valuable food plants be- 
fore enlightened, recording men set foot upon the West- 
ern Hemisphere. 

iLlTorts elsewhere have produced different- varieties, 
even going so far as to give us seedless oranges, seed- 
less apples, seedless grapes — dried into seedless raisins. 
r)y studying and taking advantage of variations, and 
sometimes forcing variations, man has improved many 
of our food plants. He has dwarfed many of our stand- 
ard fruit trees, and we are now growing standard and 
dwarfed pears, standard and dwarfed apples, standard 
and dwarfed cherries, and so on through a long list. By 
taking advantage of variations — a form of which is seed 



THE LIFE WORK OF THE PLANT 117 



selection — we have more and better vegetables, grains 
and fiber plants. 

This matter of variation in plants — and in animals 
as well — is the one widest and most inviting Held to the 
boy or girl on the farm. 

TJic Blossom and Its Parts. — Yon know, of course, 
that the seed is formed in that portion of the plant called 
the blossom. This is, therefore, the most important of 






Apple Blossom and Young Fruit 
(The named parts arc common to perfect flowers.) 

all its parts. Let us see what we can find out about it. 
Most blossoms have four sets of organs, two outer and 
two inner. The outer parts are called sepals and ])etals, 
the inner stamens and pistils. The petals are the show- 
iest of all, and make the part of the flower whose deli- 
cate coloring is so delightful to the eye. But, beautiful 
as the outer parts are, the inner are more important, as 
it is in them the seed is formed. 



ii8 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

The Pistil. — If you press the bright colored petals 
apart you will find in the very center of the flower a 
stiflf, straight stalk, often no larger than a hair, usually 
having a little knob at the top and a hollow bulb at the 
base. This hair-like stalk is called the "style" and the 
knob is the "stigma," while tlie hollow bulb at the base 
is the "ovary." The three together, style, stigma, and 
ovary, make up the "pistil." 

The Baby Seed-Gcrni and Its Nest. — Snugly tucked 
away in the ovary is the seed-germ or "ovule," as it is 
called l)cfore it really becomes a seed. At first it is noth- 
ing l:)ut a tiny sac filled with soft matter. It would never 
grow to be anything else were it not for another kind 
of matter, made in a different part of the plant, which 
must be joined with it before it can develop into a real 
seed. 

Stamens and Anthers. — This other matter is made in 
the "stamens" of the flower. These are other thread- 
like stalks, each capped with a little knob called an 
"anther," which stand in a circle al)out the pistil — which 
may, however, be divided into several parts. The plant 
may have almost any number of stamens from one to 
fifty, or even more. After a while you will see why it 
needs so many more stamens than pistils. 

Pollen. — The anther, which you may see swinging 
daintily from the end of the stamen stalk, is really a 
very tiny box filled with a yellow dust called pollen. Did 
you ever smell a lily, and find your nose all yellow after- 



THE LIFE WORK OF THE PLANT 119 

wards? Or did you ever brush a dandelion across your 
playmate's chin to see if she liked butter ? That yellow 
dust was the pollen, and came out of the ripened anthers 
of the blossom which you held. It is what the ovule 
must have before it can become a seed capable of grow- 
ing. 

TJie Plant's Most Important Task. — The most impor- 
tant business of the plant is to get the pollen dust and 
the ovule together, or rather, to unite the matter in- 
side the ovule with that inside of the pollen grain, since 
neither is of any account without the other. That looks 
like quite a task for a plant to undertake, especially since 
the pollen may hang either far above or far below the pis- 
til, apparently out of reach. But when Mother Nature 
begins to do a thing she always does it well ; and seed- 
making is one of her favorite bits of work. So we may 
be sure that it will be done in the best way possible, not- 
withstanding the difficulties. 

How the Pollen Gets into the Ovule. — We have said 
that the style is hollow. The stigma is really a little 
gateway leading into it. The stigma is sticky in some 
flowers, having a tiny drop of nectar at the top of it. 
When the anther ripens and opens to let out its golden 
dust, some of it is pretty sure to alight upon this sticky 
gateway, which holds it fast. In a short time the pollen 
grain begins to swell and sends out a very slender tube 
which grows rapidly in some plants and very, very slowly 
in others. This little tube always grows in one direc- 



120 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

tion, straight down the inside of the style and into the 
chamber of the ovary where the baby seed, or ovule, is 
waiting for it. In the ovule is a tiny opening for the 
very purpose of letting the pollen tube to the inside of 
it. As soon as the tube reaches this opening, as it al- 
ways does, seeming to know exactly where to go, it dis- 
charges the contents of the pollen grain into the ovule. 

Effect of Pollen upon the Ovule. — The ovule at once 
l)egins to develop. It has become a real seed, and when 
it is grown and ripened it may be planted and will grow. 
Jf the pollen had never reached it, it might have grown 
a little but would never have had the power of producing 
another plant. You have seen small, withered beans in 
a pod with several full-grown ones, no doubt. The well- 
formed ones were those which received their share of 
pollen, while the shrunken ones that received none were 
never "fertilized," as the result of pollination is called. 

Nature's Efforts to Hinder the Pollen Reaching the 
Ovule. — Sometimes it would seem that Nature is doing 
everything possible to prevent the pollen reaching the 
ovule. In some flowers the anthers open and the pollen 
is all scattered before the stigma is ready to receive it. 
In others the stigma gets ready long before the pollen 
is ripe, and by the time the anthers open it is all dried 
up and the style tube is dead. Often the style is so long, 
and the stamens are so short, that the stigma is far out 
of reach of the pollen, while at other times the style may 
be short enough, but the flower may droop so as to scat- 



THE LIFE WORK OF THE PLANT 121 

ter the pollen away from the stigma instead of toward 
it. 

Nature's Purpose. — But Nature never makes any mis- 
takes. All these things are for a purpose. In a great 
many cases if an ovule is fertilized by pollen from its 
own flower it is not so likely to make a good, strong 
seed as though the pollen came from another flower, or 
from a blossom on an entirely different plant of the 
same kind. That is why Nature takes so many precau- 
tions against self-fertilization. 

Messengers that Carry the Pollen. — But there is an- 
other difficulty. If the ovule is not to be fertilized by 
the pollen nearest to it, how is other pollen to reach it? 
There are hosts of messengers ready for this work, and 
if we watch in blossom time we shall always find some 
of them busy carrying the golden grains from one flower 
to another, leaving them wherever a stigma is found 
ready to receive them. Chief among these messengers 
are the bees. In their busy honey-gathering they man- 
age to get themselves covered with pollen until they are 
often (juite yellow. And as they pass from flower to 
flower they are pretty sure to leave some of it where it 
is needed, for the nectar they are after is hidden down 
in the very hearts of the flowers where they must brush 
against both stigma and anthers to get it. Other in- 
sects, such as moths and butterflies, are fond of this 
hidden nectar, too, and in getting it are sure to carry 
pollen from one plant to another. 



122 iniLl.D LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

Some of the plants do not have either nectar or bright 
colors to attract ])ollen carriers. These must depend 
upon the wind to scatter their gold-dust for them. If 
it were not for the wind many of our grains and grasses 
would not have many well-developed kernels or seeds. 
Can you think why a stalk of corn standing alone in a 
field would be likely to develop comparatively few good 
seeds ? 

77/t' flaiil's Life Work. — 'Hiis, then, is tlie plant's life- 
work. It eats, drinks, breathes and lives solely for sake 
of its children, the seeds. I'A'en the bright blossoms 
which it puts out are only to attract its messengers, the 
pollen carriers, and the fragrance we enjoy is for the 
same i)urpose, and not for our benefit at all. llie ])lant 
does not care, of course, how much we enjoy it, as long 
as we do nothing to interfere with its great work of 
seed-making. If the plant is not disturbed it usually 
succeeds in accomplishing its purpose; and how much 
belter to succeed in doing one thing well than to try to 
i\o a great many things and succeed in nothing. 

SOME TTTINCS TO DO 

Find llic blossom of a corn i)laiU. 1'lic style. The ovary. 
What is the "silk"? 

Why do dilTcrent varieties of corn mix when planted side by 
side? Out in yom* garden try planting a row of red corn and 
then a row of white corn, and see what yon have when your corn 
ri])ens. 

What would be the result of tyiui,^ a paper bag over a blossom 



TTTE TJFE WORK OF TITE PLANT 123 

al llic lime wlicn tlie slif,Miia is rcccpliNc, or ready lo rereive 
pollen ? Try it and sec. 

How may artificial pollination be acconii)lislicd? What good 
might come of it, and why? 

Why does a plant need more stamens than pistils? 

During a recent hard winter a great proportion of insects, espe- 
cially bees, were destroyed. Why should the fruit cro]) of that 
year have been a failure, aside from the effect of the cold wcallu-r 
upon the trees themsleves ? 

Has man been benefited by "variations"? If so why? 

Have you ever seen any variations in healthy ])lants? 

How do you suppose they have been found? 

llave you ever read anything about Mr. Ilurbank's W(jrk on 
jjlant improvement? 



CHAPTER XVIII 

TIIJC I'LAN'i's SIX )RI': HOUSE 

Laying Up Supplies [or Winter. — Most of Mother 
Nature's children have a way of i)rovicling' for a time of 
need. S(|nirrels lay u]) great hoards of acorns and nuts, 
hees fill their hives with honey, and even those animals 
that sleep all winter, like the bear and the ground hog, 
lake on great la\ers of fat to warm and nourish their 
bodies during the time when they do not eat. 

Why I lie riant Stores I'ood. — IMants have their own 
way of looking out for the future. Wm may wonder 
why a plant should want to lay up a food supply, since 
it usually dies, or at least stops work, after it is through 
seed-making. lUit you nuist remember why the plant 
lives and works. If it should never need the stored food 
itself, the baby plant wrapped up in the seed will be 
sure to need nourishment as soon as it begins to grow, 
since some time is required for it to grow large enough 
to lind food for itself. 

Dilferent Kinds of riant Storehouses. — T'*lants have 

many kinds of storehouses. The potato puts its food 

away in the tuber where it stays until the new plant is 

ready to use it — if some hungry person does not eat it 

Hrst. ^'ou have seen potato plants grow to (|uite a size 

124 



Tlili LM.ANT'S STORiaiOLJSF. 



125 




from potatoes stored in the cellar, using only this stored 
food, since they could get no other. Beets, turnips and 
similar plants have Heshy roots, where they lay up great 
quantities of nourishment; onions and many flowering 
plants form bul1)S for this 



purpose; corn and other 
grains pack their kernels 
full of starch and other 
compounds which the 
young plants will need ; 
trees store food in both 
roots and twigs, ready for 
the new growth of spring. 

MnriAr nf tlnptn will wnnt tn Underground Growth of Potato. 
any Ot tnem wm want to ^^^^,,,,^^, r^ots and Tubers Gkow- 

use it for blossom making 

before their new leaves get 

big enough to manufacture any more, even though the 

roots might be ready at any time to take up plenty 

more. 

Starch Stored by Plants. — One of the most important 
substances which the plant thus stores up is starch. 
There are few seeds, bulbs, tubers, roots or twigs that 
do not contain more or less of it. Some, like the grains 
of wheat and corn, are made up very largely of dry 
starch, while others, like the potato and the turnip, have 
a great deal of water mixed with the starch. 

The Plant's Difficulty in Taking Up and Using Starch. 
— If you put a bit of laundry starch into water it will 



in(; on "Root-Stems" or Root- 
stocks 



126 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

not dissolve. The particles may separate and make the 
water look white, but if left to themselves they will soon 
settle again. Sugar dropped in water soon disappears. 
No matter how long the water stands, it remains invisible. 
Starch is "insoluble" in water ; sugar is "soluble." Since 
a plant can take up its food only in soluble form — in so- 
lution, as we have said many times before — it is plain 
that it did not take up the starch as starch. And it 
can not use it as starch, either. It must have been in 
some other form when the roots and leaves took it up, 
and it must become something besides starch before it 
can be used again for the young plant. It can become 
and remain starch only for the purpose of being stored. 

How file Plant Makes Starch. — The fact is, the plant 
received the materials from which it made the starch 
in several different ways. Starch is composed of six 
parts of carbon, ten of hydrogen and five of oxygen. 
Chemically starch is called CoHioO.-. The plant took it 
from the air and the soil as carbon, hydrogen and oxy- 
gen, either separately or along with other elements. In 
the leaves these elements were separated from each other 
and combined to form different compounds, one of them 
being starch. This process is not exactly understood, 
but it is certain that the sunlight and the green coloring 
matter in the leaves have a great deal to do with it. 

Not All Plant Pood Made into Starch. — After the 
starch is made it is changed to sugar and passes through 
the sap vessels to the place w^iere it is to be stored, and 



THE PLANT'S STOREHOUSE 127 

there remade and stored as starch. Of course, not all 
the food a plant takes up can be preserved in this wa}-, 
for it needs a great deal for its own daily use. Some 
food is never turned to starch at all, but is taken directly 
to the various growing parts of the plant while still in 
the soluble state. It is only the surplus, the part not 
needed for actual growth, that can be stored. That is 
why grains on poor land turn out badly. They need all 
the food they can get for their own uses and can not 
afford to store any in their seeds for the future. 

How the Starch Becomes Usable by the Plants. — 
What is the use of storing starch to nourish new plants 
when they can not use it in insoluble form, you wonder. 
If it were always to remain starch it would do no good at 
all. But when the young plant is ready for it, it once 
more becomes a soluble compound. This time it turns 
into a substance called grape-sugar. Starch is written 
CeHioO.-,, and grape-sugar CeHisOe, so you see all the 
plant has to do to make grape-sugar out of its starch is 
to combine two parts of hydrogen and one of oxygen 
with it and it is made over into a soluble substance that 
the plant can use. This process takes place as soon as 
the plant begins to grow. The grape-sugar is then dis- 
solved by the water in the sap vessels and distributed 
wherever it is needed among the growing parts. 

Other Foods Stored by the Plant. — Similarly other 
substances, such as cellulose, fat, acids, etc., are made 
and stored. Very few of these are used in the form 



ijS I'll'.M) LoUl'. I'Ok NOUNC l''y\kMI-:i<S 

wliiili iIk'v take wlicii stored. If llicy were left in solu- 
ble I'onii while the planl does no( need them nuieh of 
them would he wasted. 

1 1 iriv to Icll //'//<// (/ /'/(//// ( 'oiilaiiis. — There are vari- 
ous ways of lellini;- what a plant eontains. A httle 
iodine dropped upon a tissue eontainini;' stareh will turn 
it purple. It does not matter whether the starch is from 
a kernel of wheat, a potato or a twiiii', the result is the 
same. If nuich stareh is present the color will he very 
dark, hut if there is onl\' a little it will he nuich hghter. 
I'\ats or oils will make pa|)er transparent il" ruhhed on 
them. Water will do the same, hut it will ewiporate, 
which the fats will not do. y\cids taste sour and sugar 
sweet. Mini-rals ma\' he found hy hurning, as ex- 
plained in a former chapter. 

/'/(//// Stores l'sc(f hy Man. — The x'cgelahle food of 
mankind consists chiellv of these compounds which the 
plant has stored up for itst'lf or its children. In a few 
cases, such as in lettuce or rhuharh, the plant is used 
while it is still growing. lUit we usually wait until the 
plant is through with its work of food making and stor- 
ing hefore we take the results of its labors for ourselves. 
As a matter of fact, there are not many products that 
are lit for om* use until the i)Iant is through with them. 

SOME TiriNCS TO UO 

'l\-ll wliy a liTo must use stoicd food foi" lilossoin-niakinc;- if its 
flowHTS appear hi-fori' its loaves arc out. 



TTir. i»i.y\N'i^'s s'r()Ri-:ii()iisi<: 129 

Tell vvliy a spiontcd ki-rncl of wheal or corn lias a sweetish 
taste. 

'J'cll why it is iieeessary to fiiniish a plaiil more food than is 
needed for growth. 

Explain where llu" plant j^ets each element used in starch 
makinjj^. 

What effect would i( have upon a plant if its leaves should he 
stripped off? Why is the practice of "fodder-pulling" haiinful 
to the plant? 



CHAPTER XIX 

now Sl'IKDS TRAVEL 

Nature a Good Gardener. — Mother Nature not only 
has her own ways of getting her seeds fertihzed and 
fed but she also has her own ways of getting them 
planted. In fact before man ever planted a single seed 
she proNXxl herself so line a gardener that she had the 
whole surface of the earth covered with plants of every 
description, each in the very best place for it. 

Hozv Nature Scatters Her Seeds. — Since wild plants 
of the same kind are often found in widely separated 
regions, where conditions of heat and moisture happen 
to be just suited for them, and since it is certain that no 
human aid has interfered to scatter them, one wonders 
how the seeds managed to make the long journey they 
must have taken. Nature has many helpers in her work 
of seed scattering. Among them are the wind, the wa- 
ter, and many animals and birds. Besides, she has 
taught many of her plants how to scatter their own seeds. 

Plants that Scatter Their Own Seeds. — If you plant 

a single bean in the middle of your garden, and then go 

away and leave the place to itself for a number of years, 

the chances are that when you come l)ack you will fmd 

bean plants scattered among the wild growths in every 

130 



HOW SEEDS TRAVEL 131 

nook and corner. They have gone in every direction, 
and to considerable distances from the parent plant. 
How did they do it ? 

The bean plant is a very independent affair and can 
help itself much better than many other plants can. 
When its pods get ripe they curl back with a snap, 
throwing the seeds out with considerable force. With 
several generations of plants tossing their seeds about in 
this way it is easy to see how they might cover a large 
space in a very few years. The common balsam, crane's 
bill, oxalis, morning glory and some others also throw 
their seeds in this way when they are ripe. The queer 
plant called the squirting cucumber explodes with even 
greater force, sending its entire contents of ripe seeds 
and water to quite a distance. The common witch-hazel 
sometimes throws its seeds over thirty feet. 

Tivo Ways in Uliich Seeds Are Scattered by Birds. — 
(1) Seeds encased in fruits which the birds relish, such 
as cherries and berries, stand an even better chance for 
being scattered. Many of these are not harmed in the 
least by being swallowed, but will grow just as well after 
having passed through the l)ird's or animal's digestive 
organs as before being eaten. Some seeds which have 
very hard coverings grow even better for the soaking 
they get while in the l)ird's crop. It is said that the 
grain called goose-barley, which grows wild in some parts 
of Canada, was first sown from seed taken from the crop 
of a migrating wild goose. It found its new home so 



132 V\i:\A) \A)\<\i V()\< ^'OLJNG FARMI^RS 



imuli lo its likiiiL;- that it j^rcvv and thrived, hcconiinL^ 
a ])crniancnt resident. 'I'liere is no doubt tliat many 
grains and grasses have heen transi)()rted to new homes 
in nuK^h tlie same way. 

(2) Iliids carry seeds in other ways, too. Mr. Dar- 
win r(|)oi"tc'(l thai he i;rew eii;hty-two plants from a hall 

of dried mud taken from 
the let;- of a i)artridi;e ; and 
the mud had l)ecn kept for 
three years before he ex- 
perimenled with it. Mi- 
tral ini;- birds often stop to 
rest at the sea coast be- 
fore l)ei;innini;' their loni;- 
nii;ht across the water. 
I f they ha])pen to alit^ht in 
a bit of mud containing 
seeds they will probably 
take some of these away 
with them on their feet. 
No doubt many of the seeds are carried to climates and 
soils where thev cannot live, and so are lost. But some 
are sure lo lind new homes that are congenial. 

Si'i'ds Srallcrcif hy (liin/iin/ lo rasscrs-by. — Did you 
ever try to walk through a i)atch of those annoying little 
plants called beggar-lice? If you have you know how 
easily they manage to make use of every passer-by to 
hclj) them scatter their seeds. "Fhey have little hooks 




Ih'i'l. <>l .ln'ii iilliirr 

KlI.I.IIl'.K I'idVKK 

(In i(s rniiir.-ilioiis lliis liird makes a 
sin^-lc llinlil of iiiorr tliaii Iwo llioii- 
sand miles.) 



HOW SKKDS TRAVKT. 



133 



with which they cilch hold of any ohjecl (hat touches 
them, and han<;- on so lirnily that they are pulled from 
their stems and taken alonj^-. lUtrdocks, cocklehurs and 
many other similar plants i^et their seeds scattered in 
the same way. They are likely to become enlani;k(l in 
tile coat of any animal having" loni;' or shaj^j^y liair, and 
instances are even recorded where ])lants have reached 
new continents in the manes and tails of horses that were 
being shipped. 

Nut-lialiiuj .liiiiiiiils (IS Seed Scallcrcrs. — S(|uirrels 
and other nut-eating animals do their share of seed scat- 
tering when ])Utting away their winter stores. Some 
nuts are sure to be dropped, while many more are hidden 
away and never eaten. It is easy to understand how 
forest trees may become distributed in this way. 

Plying Seeds. — You have noticed many seeds that 
seem particularly adapted for (lying. The dandelion 
and thistle have downy to])knots which act as 
balloons. JVlajile and catalpa seeds have 
wings, and the seed of the wild clematis 
has a sort of feathery tail that keeps it alloat 
in the air a long time. We need not wonder 
if wc find that in the ages since Nature began 
gardening plan(s bearing winged or feath- 
ered seeds have traveled around the world and back 
again. 

J'loalincj Seeds. — Ihit there are great oceans to cross 
before a seed can pass from one continent to another, 




WiNflEI) SkKI) 



134 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARAIERS 



and not every one can make the voyage across the water 
safely. Wind-blown seeds, for the most part, would 
hardly succeed in doing so. If seeds are to be carried 
across the ocean without the help of ships they must 
either float or be carried by migrating birds. The birds 
could not carry seeds of any great size, so there is noth- 
ing left for such seeds to do but to float. Salt water 
is particularly damaging, so the seeds that go to sea on 
their own responsibility must have 
very tough, thick coverings. More- 
over, if they are not to sink they 
must have oil in them to make them 
light. The cocoanut is an excellent 
example of a sea-going seed, as it 
can be tossed about by the waves for 
months and still be ready to grow 
as soon as it reaches land. The 
cocoa palm is usually the first tree 
to make its appearance upon a new 
island, and its seed has been known 
to float from one continent to an- 
other. 

Nearly All Plants Travelers. — 
At first thought it hardly seems 
fair that harmful plants should be furnished with as 
good ways of traveling as the helpful ones. But it 
must be remembered that Nature provides as well for 
a cockle-bur as for an orchid, and her idea of suc- 




Mich. Agricultural College 
COCKLEBUR 



HOW SEEDS TRAVEL 135 

cess is to get the bare spots on the earth's surface cov- 
ered as quickly as possible. For this reason Nature's 
farm must have a large variety of plants, suited to every 
l)ossible condition, so we shall find that there are very 
few plants, useful or otherwise from the human point 
of view, that are not furnished with some way of scat- 
tering their seeds. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

Find some winged seeds ; some burred seeds ; some seeds that 
have other good ways of travehng. 

Why is it better for a plant to have its seed scattered than to 
have them all dropped near itself ? 

Why is it necessary for each plant to produce a great number 
of seeds? 

Why are the seeds of fruit usually indigestible? 




The Wood Lot 




Clearing and Burning — Not a Shade-Tree Left about the House, Nor 
A Wind-break in Sight 



CHAPTER XX 

IN MOTHER nature's GARDEN THE FARM WOOD LOT 

Dcstniction of the Forests. — When the first settlers 
came to America, from countries where the great forests 
had long since been cleared away, the immense stretches 
of woodland they found here must have looked endless 
to them. Their first thought was, of course, to clear the 
land of trees just as fast as they could, so that they might 
begin building homes and raising crops. This was all 
right so long as thqre were only a few thousand settlers. 
The little clearings they made did not count for much 
beside the vast areas of forest they left untouched. But 
when the population of the country began to be counted 
by millions instead of thousands it became a very dif- 

137 



138 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

ferent matter. The people, however, were slow to real- 
ize the value of forests. Great tracts were recklessly 
cut and burned away, and the forests began to disappear 
as if by magic. 

But by and by it began to be difficult to get timber, and 
fuel, and many of the other woodland products which 
the settlers had considered almost inexhaustible. Then 
men began clearing their forests more savingly, burning 
less and selling more. But still they went on clearing, 




Lumbering is a Necessary but One of the Most Wasteful of Our 

Industries 

their only thought seeming to be to make all the money 
they possibly could out of the material before it was all 
gone. Great mills and factories were put up to use the 
forest products that were at first simply burned out of the 
way. 

Effects of Disappearance of Forests. — But after a 
while thinking men began to see that the money they 
were making from forest products would not begin to 
pay for the damage they were doing themselves in cut- 



IN MOTHER NATURE'S GARDEN 139 

ting down the woods so carelessly. The removal of the 
woods was slowly, but surely, changing the character of 
both climate and soil. The winter winds, no longer 
checked by the dense growths of trees, swept across the 
unprotected fields with great fierceness. The soil, which 
the roots of the great trees had held in place for so many 
years, began to wash away, filling the streams and chang- 
ing their courses. 




A Washed Hillside 

Where the cleared land was left to itself it soon grew 
up again, but, strangely enough, the new growth was 
very unlike the old. New trees meant new kinds of birds 
and insects, since each tree seems to have its favorite 
dwellers. 

Efforts of the Government to Save the Forests. — All 
these things worked a great deal of change — so much, in 
fact, that the national government has been compelled to 
take the matter in hand and is trying to repair some of 



140 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

the damage caused by so much thoughtless destruction. 
Among other things the forestry department is trying to 
check the needless clearing of hillsides, especially in 
mountain regions where the bare slopes allow the water 
to rush down so swiftly that dangerous torrents sweep 
through the valleys. Where the slopes are covered with 




:f:w-» t% -^i^f '^ ■ # 'i* i'^ xi 







Reforestation 
(Planting by National Forest Service on cut-over land.) 

forests the water sinks down into the soil and settles 
away too slowly to do much damage. This does not 
mean that no trees at all are to be cut on the hills and 
mountains, but only that those too small for use should be 
carefully saved and not needlessly chopped and burned 
away. The department is also trying to reforest the 
lands that have been left bare, not only in order to re- 



IN MOTHER NATURE'S GARDEN 141 

place the timber but to save the soil and improve the 
climate. 

Care of Trees on the Farm. — Although the difference 
made by cutting away the woods is not so great on a 
small farm, still the same principles apply here. Many 
a farmer wastes hundreds of dollars' worth of timber by 
careless handling. Others lose a great deal by neg- 
lecting to replant trees to take the places of those re- 
moved, especially on tracts that are very hilly, or are 
otherwise unsuited for farming. It would seem at first 
thought that trees grow too slowly for a man to profit 
from his own plantings, yet it is stated that profitable 
cuttings may be made from a forest every twenty years, 
when the trees are continually replanted and only the 
larger ones taken out. 

Some Good Rules. — A few good rules for making the 
most of the farm wood-lot are as follows : 

Cut only dead or diseased trees for fuel. 

Make use of every tree that is blown down before it lies 
long enough to rot. 

If more wood is needed, cut only the oldest and least 
thrifty trees. 

In cutting for posts do not clear any space entirely, but 
take a few trees here and there where the woods need 
thinning. 

In cutting, be careful not to injure young trees. 

Keep all dead brush and scrubby underbrush cleared 
out. 



142 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

Leave about 200 thrifty trees to the acre. 

When any space seems to be getting thin, replant with 
the trees you have found most valuable for general pur- 
poses. 

And above all, be very careful not to allow fire to run 
through the woods. 

Trees as a Protection Against Cold and Heat. — Where 
a farm is situated so that its buildings are exposed to 
winter storms it is a good plan to set quick-growing trees 
where they will form a windbreak. They are also a 
protection against summer heat. In California the 
eucalyptus is quite generally used for this purpose, as its 
foliage is quite dense. Other good trees for such plant- 
ing are the cottonwood, green ash, box elder, elm, wil- 
low, locust, and osage orange. Sometimes it is best to 
use several of these in combination. Not only are these 
plantings profitable for the purpose mentioned, but they 
may be made to furnish an additional supply of fuel, and 
even of timber. Cottonwood will make sawlogs in about 
twenty-five years, and there are several other trees that 
mature very quickly. 

Tivo-fold Value of the Trees. — No farm is complete 
without a bit of forest of its own. Under careful 
methods the remaining wood lots on American farms 
may be made to produce more in real money value than 
the greater acres that comprise our corn and cotton fields. 
And the beauty of these left-over scraps of Mother Na- 
ture's wonderful garden will in itself more than repay 



IN MOTHER NATURE'S GARDEN 143 

any expenditure of care and time in their preparation 
and improvement. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

Make a diagram showing the kinds of trees on your father's 
farm, with about the proportion in which their numbers stand to 
each other. 

Name wasteful methods that you have seen employed in clear- 
ing. 

What might have been the result on your home farm if better 
ways had been followed ? 

Plant or reset one tree every day for a week, taking care to 
choose your varieties well and giving the young trees the proper 
care and handling. 

Make a diagram of your father's farm, marking the places that 
would make profitable tree plantations. Tell why you choose 
these places. 




CHAPTER XXI 



THE HOME GARDEN 



Every Home Should Have a Garden. — Of course you 
want a garden. No farm is complete without one ; and 
we might go further and say that no home is complete 
without one. For, whether tlic home l)e on a large 
acreage or a town lot, there is usually a place, large or 
small, where good things to eat may be grown at small 
expense, by using time that might not otherwise have 
any particular value. 

We all like to eat, and we like what we eat to be fresh 

and wholesome. And the only way we may be entirely 

144 



THE HOME GARDEN 



145 



sure of this is to have just as much as we can to do with 
the production and handhng of our own foodstuffs, and 
depend just as Httle as possible upon the work of others. 
With a good garden at home we can know that our vege- 
tables are fresh and of the kind and quality we best like. 
And, what is even better,- they cost so much less that we 
may have them much more abundantly than if we de- 
pend upon buying them ; and we may also have them 
early and late, no matter what the "season" on the 
market may be. 

Study the Soil and Conditions. — When we decide to 
make a garden the first thing to think about is the soil. 
This should be well drained and not too heavy, so that it 
may warm, up early in the season and let us get in our 
precious first crop, the peas, lettuce, radishes and other 
quick-growing things that make such a relished change 
in the spring diet. A sandy loam is best where it may 
be had ; but where we cannot get what we want we must 
take what we can get and improve it. Even a heavy, 
non-porous soil may be much improved by the right kind 
of handling, as we have seen from our previous study. 

Stable manure is a good thing — almost a necessity for 
the garden, no matter how good the soil may be. On 
the poor or heavy soil it is even more necessary. It 
loosens and enriches the soil, making it productive and 
satisfactory when the ground is well worked. A good 
wagon load of manure weighs about a ton, so when we 
are told that eight or ten tons per acre should be used 



146 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

on the garden plot we know that it means that number 
of good, two-horse loads. This should be put on some 
time before planting, so that it may become well rotted 
and mixed with the soil. 

The Time to Begin. — Like the rest of the fields, the 
garden should not be worked too wet. It is in about the 
right condition when a lump crushes easily in your hand 
and falls in a slightly damp powder. When it feels 
doughy in your hand it is too wet. No matter what has 
to wait, the garden should be worked up when the soil is 
in just the right condition, for it is very important in this 
department of farming that things should be looked after 
at exactly the proper time. 

Test Seed Before Planting. — Since every foot of our 
carefully prepared garden ground is valuable, we do not 
want to waste any of it on poor seeds. The only way 
we can be sure our seeds are good is to test them. A 
convenient tester for garden seeds is made by putting 
two or three inches of moist sand in a box, marking it ofif 
into three-inch squares, and in each scjuare planting a 
certain number, say a dozen, seeds of a kind. Keep the 
box where it will have a steady temperature about as 
warm as your living-room at home should be, and no- 
tice what portion of the seeds comes up. If less than 
three quarters of them appear allow for the poor seeds by 
planting more heavily. But if less than two thirds come 
through do not use these seeds for planting at all. Test- 
ing should be begun early enough to give you time to 



THE HOME GARDEN 147 

make a second or third test if necessary to secure the 
right kind of seeds. It is cheapest to get the very best 
you can lind, for it is poor economy to waste a whole 
season's work and lose the use of the ground just be- 
cause cheap seeds — and by this we mean poor seeds — 
were purchased. 

IV hat to Plant. — The kinds to be planted depend upon 
a great many things. It is a mistake to grow a great 
(juantity of something which the family does not care 
for, unless there should happen to be a market for it at a 
fair price. Most of us, when we begin to think about a 
garden, want to put in everything that looks attractive in 
the seed catalogs, and usually we are in danger of plant- 
ing too much of some things and not enough of others. 
Let us have all we can use, but not so much of anything 
that we shall spend time and labor on a product that will 
go to waste after it is raised. Such things as potatoes, 
onions or vegetables that may be canned may, how- 
ever, be planted without much thought of a limit, for 
these do not have to be used or sold immediately in order 
to save them. 

Tlic Hotbed. — A great deal of time may be saved by 
using a hotbed, and where early plants are wanted, such 
as cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, head-let- 
tuce, egg-plant, etc., it will pay to take the time and 
trouble to make one. To do this, make an excavation 
about a foot in depth, wide enough so you can reach 
across it from side to side, say two and a half or three 




148 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

feet, and as long as desired. Six or eight feet in length 
will furnish plants enough for an ordinary garden. 

This should be located on the south side of a building. 

If no such spot is available, it may be protected from cold 

„ ^^ ■ - winds by a tight board wall 

fl' ^4!f > ^ five or six feet high, along 

' the north side. Board up 
the sides of the excavation 
to keep the dirt wall from 
falling in, and in the bot- 
tom put a layer of fresh 

Hotbed and a Straw-mat Cover horse manure five tO eight 

inches deep. Cover this with wood-mold or sandy loam, 
not with heavy clay. As the manure heats it will furnish 
warmth for the beds. When the soil has warmed up 
enough — that is, when it is as warm as soil should be in 
April — plant the seeds. An old window sash is a good 
cover for the hotbed, but boards may be used to cover it 
at night. Straw or papers laid over the boards will pro- 
tect the plants from frost. 

Transplanting. — Plants started in a hotbed may be 
transplanted at any time after the garden soil reaches 
the right condition and temperature, and will come on 
much earlier than if one waits until that time to plant the 
seeds. 

Much about gardening must be learned by experience, 
but even an amateur can make the experiments pay their 
own way. Watch the methods of successful gardeners. 



THE HOME GARDEN 149 

study all the garden books you can get, read agricultural 
papers, and write to the United States Department of 
Agriculture for garden bulletins, which are free for the 
asking. In this way much may be learned about garden- 
ing in a single season of w^ork. And as a rule there is 
no work in the world that is more pleasant or pays 
better. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

Draw a plan of a garden fifty feet square, showing what you 
would put in each row. Tell why you make your selections. 

If you have room for a market crop, what will you raise? 
Why ? 

What kind of insects will he likely to trouble your garden? 
What will you do with them ? 

What kind of weeds will you be likely to find in your rich, 
loamy garden soil? 

Will you make your garden in rows or beds? Why? If in 
rows, which way should they run in a garden longer than it is 
wide ? 

Make a seed-testing box and test five kinds of seeds. Note 
per cent, of growth. 

How can your nearest Experiment Station help you ? 

And when spring comes, make a garden. 




"Tins Place for Sale" 



CHAPTER XXII 



MAKING HOME ATTRACTIVE 



Commendable Pride. — Have you ever noticed what a 
difference it makes in your mother's dress when she puts 
a ruffle of dainty lace in the neck and about the sleeves ? 
Even if the dress itself is very plain and a bit worn, the 
lace makes her look quite dressed up and pretty. You 
like to have her look that way when you come home from 
school or when your friends come to see you, for it is 
very pleasant to feel proud of the people and places and 
things that belong to you. 

Pride in the Home. — You like to feel that way about 
your home, too, of course. You like to have the people 
who pass the house look about and say, "What a pretty 
place!" And if you will only stop to think about it a 
minute you will see that even a boy or girl can do a very 
great deal to improve the looks of things around any 

150 



MAKING HOME ATTRACTIVE 151 

country home. A little planning and work will make the 
same difference in the appearance of the yard that the 
bits of lace do in your mother's plain dress — it will 
change it from something very ordinary and perhaps un- 
attractive to something tasteful and beautiful. 

Clean Up. — Of course the very first thing to do is to 
clean up. Take out all 
the weeds and litter that 
have accumulated in the 
fence corners, cut down 
the sprouts that may have 
grown up at the roots of 
the trees, trim up the trees 
that have been allowed 
to grow low, scrubby 
branches and cut out all 
the dead limbs. After 
you have done this and 
have cleared all the rub- 
bish away level up the 
yard, filling in and rolling 

down the rough, uneven places until it is nice and smooth 
all over. 

The Front Fence. — If you live where stock is not al- 
lowed to run in the road by all means take down the road 
fence. If you cannot do that, repair the one that is 
there, or better still, persuade your father to let you help 
him build a new, neat one of wire or some material that 




152 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

will not obstruct the view of the pretty lawn you are 
going to have. 

Ready for Planting. — After your yard is all clean and 
clear take a little time to think and plan before you be- 
gin putting out the vines and shrubs and flowers that 
are to make it beautiful. What would you like to have, 
where would you like to have it, and how can you make it 
grow? Visit as many pretty, well-kept homes as you 
can, and form a picture in your mind of just how you 
want yours to look when it is finished. And always re- 
member that it is far the best to undertake only what you 
can be sure of carrying out. Just a few vines and 
flowers well tended are far more beautiful than a great 
many that are left to run wild after the first year or two. 
So do not plant too much in the beginning, as you want 
to add other things later. 

JValks and Drivcivays. — Lay out your walks first. Do 
not have too many of these, as they are both expensive to 
make and difficult to maintain. Put them only where 
there is a real use for them, to the outbuildings and barns, 
to the gate of the vegetable garden and probably from 
the house to the road. However, a wide, curving drive- 
way leading from the road to the side of the house and 
on to the barn will usually look much prettier than a 
narrow path and can be used in the same way. Fill the 
paths with gravel if you cannot afford cement, putting 
the coarse gravel at the bottom, rolled down well, and 
finishing off with a good layer of finer material. 



MAKING HOME ATTRACTIVE 153 

Begin With Grass. — Now sow your grass-seed, for 
after all this renovating the yard will probably not have 
a sufficient covering of sod, and there is no foreground 
so pretty as a smooth, well-kept stretch of green grass. 
The kind for you to sow will depend upon where you live. 
In most parts of the South, Bermuda grass is good, but 
you will have to fight to keep it out of your shrubbery. 
Kentucky blue-grass with a little white clover mixed 
through it is beautiful where blue-grass does well. Sow 
it thickly and keep it mowed from the very first of the 
season. 

Yard Pictures. — You are now ready to think about 
your trees and vines and flowers. Study the view of 
your yard from the road in both directions and in front, 
and also from every window in the house. Do not plant 
things where they will keep you from seeing either out 
or in. Put low growing shru1)s in the window ranges, or 
better, leave just the smooth, green sweep of grass for 
the shadows to rest on morning and evening. Set a bor- 
der of plants where it will grow up and hide the founda- 
tion of the house and another border down the outer 
edge of the lawn, but never along the paths. And never 
cut up the center of your lawn with either trees or 
plants. Set the trees back at the sides where they will 
make a lovely frame for the picture of which the house 
is the center. Among them have a few which will not 
grow very large, but which will bring you a springtime 
offering of blossoms each year. You will find plenty of 



154 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

these in the woods — dogwood, wild crab-apple, hawthorn 
and many others every country boy and girl knows. Set 
only a few of the larger trees, elms and oaks and maples ; 
three or four will be enough unless your yard is very 
large. Of course you will want a few cedars and pines 
for their winter cheerfulness, but remember to keep them 
where they will not shut off the view. They are usually 
best at the back of the buildings. 

The Flozuers. — As for flowers, the best are those that 
take the least trouble, such as roses, and lilacs, and 
japonicas. You will want a few barberry bushes for 
their winter attractiveness, a bush honeysuckle, a hy- 
drangea or flowering almond or deutzia. And by all 
means somewhere about the place, find room for a snow- 
ball bush and some bunches of red and white peonies. 
There are rose-scented peonies to be had that are won- 
derful both in flower and fragrance. 

Do not plant many annuals — the ones whose seed must 
be sown every year — unless you can have a flower garden 
at the back of the house. The chances are that if you 
are busy with other work about the farm they will be 
neglected, and a neglected flower-bed is far worse than 
none at all. Much better leave the spaces to smooth 
green grass and spend your odds and ends of time keep- 
ing the permanent plantings in order. 

Repairing and Hiding. — Nothing has been said about 
the buildings. Of course you will not want unpainted, 
tumble-down shacks in the midst of this picture, so, long 



MAKING HOME ATTRACTIVE 



155 



before you get this done, you will have taken pains to im- 
prove them. If there are any that are too hopelessly 
ugly to be made presentable with the means at hand, 
plant vines to cover them. But you will be surprised 
what a little straightening and nailing up will do for even 
the most imattractive building*. Paint or whitewash 
wherever necessary, and the most unsightly structure can 
be almost transformed. Do not be discouraged even if 




A New Home — But an Old Place 

the house is small and awkwardly built. Neatness and 
care about the yard will remedy more defects than you 
would ever imagine. 

Compensation. — All these things pay, not only in satis- 
faction and enjoyment but in real money value. Your 
farm may be increased very greatly in market price in 
only one season by simply making it a place where other 
people will think they would like to live. But by the 
time you have worked out your own ideas of home-like 



156 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

beauty you will not want to leave it — and just that one 
thing will make all your work well worth while. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

Take a ball of twine with you when you go to the woods and 
when you see a small tree or shrub you think would look well in 
some corner of your yard, mark it so you can find it when the right 
time comes for setting it. 

Study seed and plant catalogs to learn names and habits of vines 
and plants. 

Watch for new ideas in decoration wdierever you go, but try 
only the ones that you are sure are fitted to your own needs. 

If there is spare space well back from the house, plant a couple 
of mulberry trees, and overrun these with wild grapes as a sum- 
mer and winter home and feeding place for wild birds. Tangles 
of wild roses, or thickets of any kind on rocky places or inac- 
cessible hillsides will furnish winter cover for finches and spar- 
rows, and these will more than pay ground rent by their destruc- 
tion of weed seeds. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

MAKING A SCHOOL GARDEN 
"God Almighty first planted a garden." — Bacon. 

The First Garden. — Would you not like to have seen 
that first garden ? When you read of it you do not think 
of cabbages and potatoes. You do not even imagine it 
filled with sweet peas, or cannas, or chrysanthemums. 
Rather, you have a vision of great trees and blossoming 
shrubs, of sweet wild-flowers hidden in tufts of grass, of 
tangled vines and soft, velvety mounds of moss; with 
here and there in the open spaces nodding daisies and 
plumy golden-rod and long festoons of wild roses or 
sensitive briar. How very lovely that garden must have 
looked to those who knew it in its first fresh beauty! 

The School Garden. — When you plan your school gar- 
den why not pattern it after that beautiful one of the 
long, long ago? Why not have in it every kind of tree 
and shrub and wild flower that grows in your woods and 
fields? For our woodlands are the left-over scraps of 
the world's first great garden, and in them there are 
plants and trees just as perfect and beautiful as those 
which grew in by-gone ages, all yours for the taking. 
As you search them oftt and carry them in triumph to be 

157 



158 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

set in your school garden you continually learn new 
things about them. You learn their names, and why 
they grow where they do, and when their leaves and blos- 
soms and fruit appear. You learn much about their 
uses, too ; why the wood of one tree is used for fine furni- 
ture, while that of another is sought for its great 
strength. You learn what herbs are good for medicine, 
and what ones are poisonous in spite of their attractive 
coloring. In short, in this way you become intimately 
acquainted with the whole great garden of nature, and 
the woods and fields no longer keep their secrets from 
you. 

Material For the School Garden. — It takes a great 
deal of study to make such a garden. In the first place 
you must go into the woods and study the trees right 
where they stand. You must find out which ones like 
dry, sandy slopes, and which would rather stand with 
wet feet. You must learn which shrubs thrive best in 
sunny, open places, and which ones like the shady nooks. 
You must notice, too, how large they are when they grow 
up, so that you may not crowd them too closely in your 
own garden. And besides all this you must learn how 
many varieties of each class of tree or shrub or plant 
grow in your section, for you do not want to miss a single 
one. 

Possibilities of the School Garden. — Then you must 
come back and study your school grounds. Perhaps you 
can not find an ideal place for each tree and plant to 



MAKING A SCHOOL GARDEN 159 

grow, but you can place them as nearly according to their 
special needs as possible. Down here where the yard 
dips toward the little spring branch will be the place for 
the sycamores and willow oaks, for violets, too, and other 
moisture-loving plants. On the higher side you will find 
rich spots where the elms and nut trees will love to 
spread their roots ; and on the rocky slope at the back is 
the very spot for that loveliest shrub of all, the waxen- 
bloomed mountain laurel. In fact, by careful study you 
will be able to find a fairly good home for each of your 
woodland friends. 

Method of Planting. — Dig the holes for your young 
trees deep and wide enough so that each root can find 
soft earth to burrow through during its first months in 
its new home. If it finds the soil hard and inhospitable 
it will be retarded, or probably die ; or if it lives at all it 
will grow in a stunted and misshaped way. Prune back 
the top so that the roots may have the chief strength of 
the soil at first. And as you set the little tree carefully 
down into its bed, see that these food-gathering mouths 
upon which it must depend for life are not cramped or 
crowded. Spread them out gently, a little deeper than 
they were in the woods, and then pack the earth firmly 
about them so that there may be no air spaces to dry them 
out, and to anchor them solidly in order that the wind 
may not tip them over. 

Copying Nature in the Plan. — Plan your garden for 
beauty, too, and so that as your trees grow they may 



i6o FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

make a tasteful background for the schoolhouse. Do 
not put low-branching trees where they will in time shut 
off the view from the windows. And do not set them in 
straight, stiff rows. When your school garden is 
finished it should be as much like the natural garden as 
possible, only with the additional touch given by loving, 
intelligent care. For the front of the grounds there are 
low-growing, light-green shrubs, and trees that grow 
straight and tall for many feet before the branches be- 
gin. Either of these may be used where a window de- 
mands a clear vista. And for backgrounds there are 
great possibilities in cedars and massed vines and wild- 
rose hedges, with many others of compact growth and 
dark green foliage to finish out a beautiful picture. 

Not Hozv Much but Hozv Well. — Do not try to do too 
much at once. Let your specimens be brought and set 
one at a time, that each may have its individual place in 
memory and interest. And do not set too many of each 
kind ; but as some will be likely to die, it is well to put out 
at least twice as many as you wish to have at last, and 
then if your plantings prove too thick the extra ones may 
be readily removed after all have become well established. 
This plan saves years of time that might be wasted on un- 
successful planting. 

A Perpetual Garden. — Such a garden is not faded and 
forgotten after a single season of usefulness, which is 
the fate of the usual school garden. Even the flowers 
that die down yearly have a certain grace and interest in 



MAKING A SCHOOL GARDEN i6i 

their old age, and do not have the desolate appearance of 
neglected cultivation. Such a garden, moreover, grows 
in value and loveliness year after year, as one after an- 
other the natural growths of the section are brought to- 
gether for preservation. It furnishes more than a pass- 
ing means of instruction. Here your children, and even 
their children after them for generations, may learn the 
same lessons you are learning now; and, besides, here 
many a rare and valuable specimen from the rapidly dis- 
appearing native forest may be saved from extinction. 
No one can estimate the value of such a collection, care- 
fully and completely made, as the years pass. The school 
'so surrounded is more than a place of books; it forms 
and holds a heart interest among its pupils that lasts as 
long as their lives, and becomes an important factor in 
creating an active sentiment looking toward school im- 
provement. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

Follow the course of your nearest spring branch and see how 
many varieties of trees and plants you can find near its margin. 

Walk out through the woods and see if you can tell what kind 
of soil the nut-bearing trees grow best upon. 

How many varieties of oak can you name? Draw a chestnut 
leaf ; a sweet gum leaf ; three kinds of acorns. 

Study the furniture in your home and see what you can find out 
about the kinds of wood it is made of. 

How many uses can you give of southern yellow pine? Of 
hickory? Of apple wood? 



i62 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

What trees would you plant singly in your school garden? 
What kinds would look better in small groups? liow would you 
set flowering shrubs ? 

As you walk through the woods when everything is in full leaf, 
look closely at the colors of the foliage and remember which trees 
and shrubs and vines have dark green leaves, which are medium 
dark and which are light green. 

If you plant tall-growing trees with light colored bark and 
leaves at the front, and short-growing trees with dark colored 
bark and leaves at the back of the garden it will look much longer. 
Why is this true? 

Should you leave playground room at the front part of the 
garden or at the back part? Why? 

If your country church had such plantings about it would it not 
be a more inviting place ? "The groves were God's first temples" 
— would not a handsome group of trees help the appearance of 
the little church yard?" 



Cfje Counttp 15of$ CteeD 

I BELIEVE that the Country, which God 
made, Is more beautiful than the City, which 
man made; that life out-of-doors and in touch with 
the earth is the natural life of man. 

I believe that work Is work wherever we find It, 
but that work with Nature is more Inspiring than 
work with the most intricate machinery, 

I believe that the dignity of labor depends not on 
what you do, but on how you do It; that opportunity 
comes to a boy on the farm as often as to a boy In 
the city; that life Is larger and freer and happier on 
the farm than In town; that my success depends not 
upon my location, but upon myself — not upon my 
dreams, but upon what I actually do — not upon luck, 
but upon pluck. I believe In working when you 
work, and In playing when you play, and in giving 
and demanding a square deal In every act of life. — 
Edwin Osgood Grover, 



163 



CHAPTER XXIV 
"to make the best better" 

We have been told over and over — and we know it is 
true — that the farm is the best place in the world to live 
and be happy. Where will we find so many fascinating 
secrets as in our woods and fields, and where else is the 
student and worker welcomed with so kindly and help- 
ful a hand? Mother Nature has, as we long ago dis- 
covered, a most generous heart, and is always ready to 
respond richly to our needs if we know just how to reach 
out and take what she has for us. 

But to know how — that is the question. Because of 
lacking this knowledge, country life has for ages been 
much more narrow and hard than it should have been. 
But humanity learns pretty rapidly, and Nature is a pa- 
tient and generous teacher, so one by one the problems of 
making farm life broader and richer are being solved. 

Wise men of our own nation pondered over this very 
subject for many years, and gradually brought about 
many improvements. But it was left for a bright-eyed 
slip of a country girl, a young South Carolina school- 
teacher, to teach those wise men a greater lesson than 
they had ever taught any one else. It was a lesson that 

165 



i66 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

has added millions of dollars of income to American 
farms, made thousands of homes happier, and saved hun- 
dreds of thousands of ambitious, restless boys and girls 
for the free, clean, independent life of the country. 

There were forty-six girls in that first Tomato Club 
— for that was the little teacher's big idea. Four years 
later there were sixty thousand Club girls in the United 
States, and the movement is still growing by leaps and 
bounds. From South Carolina north, south and west 
the new idea ran like wildfire, for as soon as people 
heard al)out it they knew it was the very thing they had 
so long needed. They liked the sound of the hopeful 
watchword of those young workers, too — "The farm is 
the best place in the world ; let us make it still better !" 

State after state caught the canning fever, and as cel- 
lars filled with dainty, wholesome products, and girl after 
girl put her strong, capable young shoulders to the heavy 
wheel of household expense, fathers and mothers saw 
that here was new hope for the homes, and, more, the 
very secret of keeping ambitious young life happily be- 
side them, and gave freely of help and encouragement. 

No one now needs to ask, ''What is a Canning Club?" 
Every one knows that it is an organized group of girls 
working with a "collaborator," as the instructors are 
called, to see how much can be raised and how much 
profit made on a tenth of an acre of ground. Some re- 
sults have been little short of marvelous; in fact, they 
would hardly be credible if we did not know that careful 



'TO MAKE THE BEST BETTER" 167 

Uncle Sam keeps a watchful eye on every girl's work, 
and makes her account for every penny, both of cost and 
income. So when we hear that some girl, perhaps not 
more than fourteen years old, has made more on her little 
tomato patch than her father made on his whole crop of 
cotton we know it is absolutely true. A few years ago 
the statement that a mere school-girl could make $200 in 
clear profit from one-tenth of an acre of tomatoes and 
beans and cucumbers would have been laughed at as im- 
possible, but Club girls have proven it possible to do even 
better than that. Of course not many reach this high 
mark, but even the average of nearly $40 of profit on the 
tenth-acre plot, which thousands of girls in nearly every 
state have contributed to make, is a wonderful achieve- 
ment. 

Then, too, nearly every Club thinks of something to 
can that no one else had ever thought of. Something 
else is thus saved from waste and turned into nutritious 
food, and the Club girls score another victory. In 1914 
a little Utah girl of twelve put up ninety-nine varieties 
of fruits, vegetables and meats. ''The only reason she 
did not make it one hundred," said her enthusiastic col- 
laborator, "was because there was nothing else in Utah 
to can !" But no doubt long before this she or some one 
else has found the hundredth product, for if it was not 
already there some girl would be sure to raise it. 

Of course money gained by so much earnest study and 
labor is not to be lightly spent. The Club girl learns 



i68 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

thrift and economy along with her other lessons. Where 
will her earnings profit herself and her family most? 
The result is showing in better equipped kitchens, more 
attractive living rooms, more music and books, a college 
course where one would otherwise have been impos- 
sible, and even in a blooded animal or two at the barn; 
for she has learned that field and house must work to- 
gether to make a real home, and that nothing is too good 
for the farmer's family. 

The money earned, however, is far the least valuable 
of the Canning Club girl's attainments. For every dol- 
lar she puts in her pocket she has acquired ten times its 
value in confidence, alertness, breadth of view, quick 
sympathy, and an all-round ability to take care of her- 
self and every one else in reach. More than all this, she 
has found out the ultimate secret of building a happy 
home, which shall be nowhere else than on a farm, for it 
is there her eagerly-wrought abilities count for most. 

But to make even this glorious best still better, there 
is now a movement to give a permanent value to these 
wonder-working tenth-acres. A tomato crop is a 
temporary thing, but strawberries and other small fruits 
may be made to yield almost as great a yearly income 
with the added advantage of lasting more than one 
season. So the Club girl who wishes to go to school and 
at the same time continue her work, may set her plot to 
berries instead of tomatoes and reap a longer harvest. 
Orchard trees are another step in advance, and when she 



"TO MAKE THE BEST BETTER" 169 

gets ready to go away to college what can be a better as- 
set than bearing trees ? The f oresighted girl is already 
preparing for this by setting young trees in her tomato 
patch, so, incidentally, she is learning the fascinating les- 
sons of orcharding along with her gardening lore. 

No one would have believed it possible that a young 
country girl could work out problems that puzzled the 
heads of sages. And even if that had been thought pos- 
sible, no one would have believed that the supposedly 
helpless hands of other girls would have carried her plans 
to such triumphant success. Honor to the Canning Club 
girls whose optimistic slogan has become the watchword 
of a nation, and honor to their leader, Miss Marie 
Cromer — now Mrs. Zeigler — of South Carolina ! There 
is no need to build a memorial to them ; they are building 
their own in every farm home touched by their hopeful 
spirit — in homes that will draw and hold the nation's 
brightest and best life to the farms ! ^ 

1 It is possible for any community to organize a Canning Club. Write to 
your State Department of Agriculture for instructions. 



a Countcp airPs CreeD 

I BELIEVE that the country is a better place 
for me to Hve than the city, because it is 
cleaner, quieter and more beautiful. I believe that 
I can find no nobler work than to use all the knowl- 
edge and skill I can obtain to make my country home 
a place of happiness for my family and friends. 

I believe that the community in which I live is a 
part of my home and that I should work earnestly 
with my neighbors to bring more joy and helpfulness 
into the community life. 

I believe that it is for me an ennobling privilege to 
work with Nature — to care for the life-giving soil 
with my own hands, to sow the seed and help them 
grow. 

I believe that all my life I should have some work 
that calls me into the open day. I believe in learning 
to enjoy good books, good music and good pictures. 
But most of all I believe in reading in Nature's un- 
written books the wonderful stories of plants and 
animals; in listening to the music of birds and in- 
sects, of wind and rain; in watching the ever-chang- 
ing pictures of earth and sky. For I believe that 
God has given all these things to make my country 
home beautiful and dear. 



170 








A White Leghorn Hennery 



CHAPTER XXV 



CHICKENS 



Origin. — All our many varieties of chickens came 
from a wild jungle fowl by the name of Galliis Bankiva, 
found in the jungles of India. As it was the North 
American Indian who tamed and domesticated the tur- 
key, so it is probable that it was the Indians of Asia who 
tamed and domesticated this wild bird of the jungles. 

Characteristics Influenced by Changed Conditions. — 

It is probable that the wild chicken may yet be found in 

the Indian jungles ; with its colors, its size and its habits 

just as firmly fixed as such traits are fixed in the wild 

birds of our own country. But the Callus Bankiva had 

one trait of character found in only two of the wild birds 

171 



172 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

of North America. It could be tamed — not only tamed 
but domesticated. 

Why Fozvls Need a Home. — Man, by domestication, 
breeding and changed environment, has made possible 
all of the many sizes, shapes and colors. That is not all, 
he bred the birds so that instead of their laying fifteen 
to twenty eggs a year they now lay one hundred and fifty 
to two hundred eggs a year. This domestication, how- 
ever, has made it necessary to build some protection for 
the fowls during inclement w^eather and as a safe-guard 
against their natural enemies. 

Location. — If you are going to build a little house for 
your fowls, the first thing to consider is the location. 
Do not locate it too far away from the rest of the farm 
buildings. Place the house on a little knoh, if possible, 
to provide good air and water drainage. Do not locate 
the house too close to the dwelling nor build it as a lean-to 
to your horse stable or cow-barn. The wood lot or or- 
chard afifords an ideal place for the fowls to run in. 

Remodelling Old Buildings. — If you have, or can get, 
an old building not used for any other purpose, perhaps 
a few hours' work with a hammer, saw and some nails 
will change it into a satisfactory home for your flock of 
poultry. Lath, tar paper or some patent roofing and a 
few nails will do wonders in fixing up an old, unused 
building for a comfortable chicken house. The interior 
should have a coat of whitewash to which has been added 
five per cent, of crude carbolic acid, both to improve its 



CHICKENS 



"^yz 



appearance and to kill the lice and mites which would 
otherwise gather in every crack and crevice. This coat 
should be renewed every few weeks, especially during hot 
weather. 

Material zvitJi IVhicJi to Build a House. — If you wish 
to build a new home for your chickens there are three 




Chicken House for a Small Flock 

kinds of material you can use ; one is scraps of old lum- 
ber that are to be found on all farms; a second is dry 
goods boxes that can be purchased very cheaply, or some- 
times had for the asking at your store ; the third is new 
lumber purchased from the lumber yard, or realized by 
taking some logs to the sawmill. 

Several Things to Remember When Building. — Most 



174 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

young people make a mistake in building a too expensive 
house. A large number make a more serious mistake in 
the construction of a chicken house by building elabo- 
rate labor-saving devices, nests, feeding utensils and 
roosts. When you build your chicken house, be sure to 
make it as simple as possible. The fixtures should be 
very simple, movable and few in number. You have no 
use for alley-ways or passage-ways. All fixtures should 
be raised up from the floor at least two feet. They 
should be well constructed, as also the entire house, so 
that there are few cracks and crevices for the lice and 
mites to live and breed in. 

Size of House. — In building your poultry house, make 
it large enough to comfortably house your flock. In the 
South we generally allow three square feet of floor space 
per bird. If you wish to keep twenty hens, a house eight 
by eight feet would be large enough, as would also be one 
six by ten feet. You can build it just high enough 
so your father could do the work in any part of it with- 
out stooping or bumping his head. Y^ou must remember 
that some day you may be as large as your father. 

Floor of Your House. — If you can locate your house 
on some dry spot, and if in your community chickens are 
not troubled by rats, minks, skunks and weasels, an earth 
floor will be satisfactory. This kind of floor, however, 
is not so sanitary and vermin proof as a cement floor. A 
wooden floor is more expensive and not so sanitary and 
easy to keep clean as a concrete floor. A cement floor is 



CHICKENS 175 

the most expensive, most lasting and most sanitary. If 
you wish to use a board floor, it is best to raise the build- 
ing about fourteen to sixteen inches from the ground by 
placing it on tiles, to prevent vermin from gaining access 
to the house easily. 

Walls of the House. — In constructing the walls, there 
is one important thing to bear in mind : They should be 
so constructed that in the winter they may be made 
solid to. prevent drafts, and so they can be opened in the 
summer to allow a circulation of air, thus keeping the 
house cool. This can best be done by the use of large 
wooden shutters, hinged at the top to swing out. It 
sometimes is a good idea to place a small window in the 
rear wall of the house. This window should be hinged 
at the top to swing out. The front should be left open 
and is best covered with one-inch mesh poultry netting. 
Curtains may be used, so arranged as to keep out the sun 
in summer and the rain in winter. 

Roof of House. — The roof should be made slanting 
to the north, and is best constructed of material that is 
not too great a conductor of heat nor a good hiding place 
for lice and mites. Prepared roofing paper is one of the 
best materials. Galvanized, corrugated iron is next 
best. 

Fixtures in the House. — All fixtures should be very 
simple and few in number. They should never be put in 
permanently and must always be raised up high enough 
from the floor so the birds can work in the straw litter on 



176 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

the floor underneath. The only fixtures you need are 
roosts, nests, feed hopper, drinking vessel and stand and 
a grain can to hold the supply of scratch-grain. 

Roosts or Perches. — Roosts or perches are poles or 
pieces of timber for the fowls to roost on. They should 
all be placed on a level. You can make good perches by 




Dej't. of Agriculture 



IxTEKioK OF Chicken House 



rounding the top of a two-by-four of the required length 
and suspending it with stiff wire from the ceiling. Do 
not allow the ends to touch the sides of the house so 
that the lice and mites can get from the roosts to the 
walls of the house or from the walls to the roosts. 
Place these roosts between two and three feet from the 
floor. 

Drinking Vessel. — Probably the best thing you can 



CHICKENS 177 

use for a drinking vessel is some common open dish. A 
galvanized iron pan with four-inch tapering sides, about 
ten inches in diameter at the bottom and twelve inches at 
the top, makes a very desirable drinking vessel for the 
fowls. This should be placed on a slatted stand about 
eighteen inches from the floor and hinged to the house. 
This stand can be constructed by nailing together about 
seven slats, eighteen inches long and an inch and a half 
wide. Nail these slats about an inch apart. Use two 
cross pieces two inches wide and eighteen inches long, 
upon which to nail the slats. Two strips an inch and a 
half wide are attached in front to act as legs and aid in 
holding up the stand. The rear end may be hinged to 
the wall to swing up. The front legs may also be hinged 
to the shelf to swing down. Use small nails. 

Grain-Supply Can. — The grain-supply can should be 
made of galvanized iron, with a sloping top to prevent 
the birds roosting upon it. The top is hinged and acts 
as a door. A can eight by twelve inches on the base, 
fifteen inches high in the back and twelve inches in the 
front would be about right. Two holes in the back near 
the top make it possible to hang this supply-can upon two 
nails driven into the wall of the house. This kind of can 
is rat and mouse proof. 

Nests. — Nests should be simple, movable and sanitary. 
The number of them depends upon the number of hens. 
As a rule about one nest is provided for every four or 
five hens. Do not provide too many. A good nest is 



178 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



satisfactorily. 



one about twelve inches square and twelve inches high, 
with a quarter-inch mesh galvanized wire cloth bottom. 
These nests can be suspended from the wall on nails or 
special hangers. Just how high they should be from the 
floor depends upon how high your breed of fowls can fly ; 
generally between three and four feet from the floor is 
about rigfht. Common dry-goods boxes are used very 
There are various types of nests, but the 
above described are the simplest and 
cheapest, as well as movable and sani- 
tary. Clean straw should be kept in the 
bottom of the nests. 

Self -Feeding Hoppers. — It makes the 
work of caring for the hens much more 
quickly and easily done to use a feeding 
box. For this purpose w^e have de- 
signed a feeding box that keeps the feed 
before the fowls all the time or part of 
the time, as desired, without wasting or 
clogging. These hoppers are hung on 
the w.all and are constructed large 
enough to hold a supply of feed that will 
last the flock for a week or two. The 
best material for the construction of 
this hopper is one-half inch matched 
soft pine. The hopper can be built any 
length desired, this depending upon the size of the flock. 
A good size is about thirty inches long, three feet high 




Detail Plan of 
Self-feeding 
Hopper 



CHICKENS 179 

and eight inches wide. The back can be made either of 
heavy tin or matched lumber. The back end is three feet 
high and thirty inches long. The ends can be constructed 
out of a piece eight inches wide and three feet long, cut on 
one end to a slant as shown in cut. The top can be 
made by taking a strip two inches wide and nailing it to 
the ends. The rest of the top is the ten-inch wide door 
hinged to the two-inch strip. The front of the hopper is 
built with matched lumber and is two feet high and thirty 
inches long. The front at the top is nailed eight inches 
from the back, at the bottom four inches from the back, 
and is left four inches above the bottom. It will be no- 
ticed that the front is farthest away from the back at the 
top and goes to within four inches of the bottom board 
and back, by inside measure. The bottom of the hop- 
per is made by nailing a piece eight inches wide to the 
back and two ends, and should be about thirty-one and a 
half inches long. At the top of the free end piece of the 
bottom board should be nailed a four-inch strip to keep 
the feed in the hopper. On top of the four-inch strip is 
nailed another inch strip, as shown in the drawing. 
Short pieces of wire are fastened across the front about 
three inches apart. A piece of tin ten inches wide and 
thirty inches long is tacked to the back and bottom of 
the hopper in such a way as to eliminate the corner and 
also aid in forcing the feed towards the front of the hop- 
per. Partition boards may be placed in the hopper so as 
to provide several compartments, one a large section for 



i8o FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



dry mash, and two smaller ones for grit and oyster shell. 
The hopper is hung upon spikes from the wall about 
twelve inches from the floor, or lower for small 
birds. 

Cleanliness. — Keep the house clean and go over it 
regularly with some good disinfectant. Keep clean 
straw on the floor and in the nests. To kill the lice and 
mites in the house, spray regularly with the disinfectant. 
To kill body lice, dust with some good lice killer. To 
kill head lice on small chicks, apply common lard or 

grease. For scaly 



leg, apply vaseline 
to affected parts. 

Feeding of the 
Fozvls. — Poultry 
of all ages should 
be regularly fed 
the feeds necessary 
to make eggs or 
growth, as the case 
may be. You will 
get the best results 
by feeding some 
grain mixture, like 
ecjual parts of corn and wheat, twice a day, morning 
and evening, in a straw litter. In addition to this, 
feed a dry ground grain mixture somewhat as follows : 
Mix sixty pounds of corn, kafir or milo meal, fifty 




Vcpt. of Agriculture 

Outside Feed Box 
(Open and closed.) 



CHICKENS i8r 

pounds wheat bran, thirty pounds wheat middHngs 
(shorts), fifteen pounds cottonseed meal and thirty-five 
pounds good, pure, wholesome poultry beef-scrap. This 
should be supplemented with some form of green feed, 
grit, oyster shell and plenty of fresh water. Milk is 
relished and should be provided if possible. 

Care and Attctiiion. — If you wish your hens to do 
their best, you will find it advisable to watch and study 
their needs. Watch them eat and exercise. Watch 
them chasing after bugs and insects. Watch them lay 
eggs. Watch them when broody, hatching and raising a 
flock of chicks. Watch them molt. You can learn 
much by studying the little hen. 

Marketing of Products. — You will find it profitable 
to market your eggs, broilers, fryers and roasters upon a 
special fancy market. Make it a practice to sell nothing 
but first quality products. Sell your products under a 
trade mark and in a fancy package. Perhaps the first 
few years you cannot produce more than your mother 
uses on the table. Keep an account of what your chick- 
ens eat and how many eggs they produce and how many 
fryers you raise. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

1. Make a drawing of your father's poultry house. 

2. Go out to the flock of poultry with pencil and paper; watch 
and study them for five minutes, then make a report of your ob- 
servations. 



i82 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

3. Name the most important factors to consider in the con- 
struction of a good chicken house. 

4. Why is it necessary to have a poultry house ? 

5. Name and describe some of the necessary fixtures for a 
chicken house. 

6. Why should you not feed much corn? 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE HEN AND HER PLACE UPON THE FARM 

No Farm Without Chickens. — No farm is complete 
without chickens. There may be ranches without 
chickens or "patches" without chickens, but a farm is a 
home place for industrious, intelligent, well-living peo- 
ple; and such people un- 
der farm-life conditions 
all have chickens. So it 
is not a question of hav- 
ing chickens on the farm 
but a question of what 
kind of chickens and why 
they are kept on a farm. 
Any breed will respond to 
the treatment it receives, 
and will yield better re- 
turns for better treat- ^ak, ^^bluL^TAIN 
ment. A brood of downy chickens appeals to the lit- 
tle people of our farms and is a delight to the larger 
people. The best returns will probably come to the farm 
if the market is studied and a breed selected to supply, as 
far as possible, the demands of the market. 

183 



. 


■■MlHliilHF''^- "> 


m^ '^^S''. ■*" 







i84 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

Selecting a Breed. — If you should count all of our dif- 
ferent varieties of chickens, not including the Games, you 
would find that there are more than eighty. Just think 
of it, eighty varieties, all with different characteris- 
tics. Some differ from all the rest in shape, some 
in color, some in size, some in feathering and others in 
shape of comb. In selecting your breed, bear in mind 
the product you are working for, the market you are 
going to supply and the money you will have to work 
with, and then allow your particular fancy as to color, 
shape, or other characteristics to aid you in your selec- 
tion. 




Single Comb Brown Leghorns 



Egg Breeds. — If you wish to keep a breed of birds 
adapted to the production of a large number of eggs at 
the lowest possible cost, make your selection from what 



THE HEN AND HER PLACE 185 

are called the "egg jjreeds." These are all rather small 
in size, very active, and with a nervous temperament. 
They possess great powers of flight. As a breed char- 
acteristic, they mature early and feather (juickly. They 
are poor sitters and mothers. They are good foragers 
and fairly hardy. The following are the most impor- 
tant types of chickens included in the egg l)reeds: T.eg- 
horn, Minorca, Spanish, Ancona, Campine, and Andalus- 
ian. All of these lay white-shelled eggs. 

The Leghorns. — These are considered very economical 
Qgg producers. They are small in size, weighing al)()ut 
four pounds. There are eight important varieties of 
Leghorns. The Leghorns originated in Italy, and are 
hardy and very alert. They are well adapted to our 
warm climate. 

The Minorcas. — Minorcas lay large, white-shelled 
eggs very much desired by fancy markets, such as the re- 
tail Q.gg trade, hotel and summer resorts. They are 
great layers, ranking among the very best. This breed is 
subdivided into live varieties. They have rather long 
and rectangular shaped bodies. One of their serious dis- 
advantages as a market fowl is their colored shanks and 
dark plumage, which give a somewhat unattractive ap- 
pearance to the dressed fowls. 

The Campines. — As a breed Campines are divided into 
two varieties. They are a comparatively new breed and 
were originated from the Campine and I>nckel varieties 
of Belgium. They are very alert, active and attractive 



i86 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



in appearance. They carry the same standard weight 
as the Leghorns. 

The Spanish. — The Black Spanish is one of our grand 
old breeds. The characteristic feature is the long body 
and large, long, pendulous white face. They are about 
a pound heavier than the Leghorns and are good layers of 
of white-shelled eggs. 




Silver Campines 



Black Spanish 



The Anconas. — These fowls derive their name from 
a city by that name in Italy. They are very similar to 
the Leghorn in size, shape and other characteristics. 
The breed is sub-divided into two varieties. They are 
good layers of white-shelled eggs but are comparatively 
small in size. 

The Aiidalusians. — This breed is so named because it 
was first known in a province of Southern Spain called 



THE HEN AND HER PLACE 187 

Andalusia. Andalusians are very similar to the Leg- 
horns in size, activity and temperament. 

Meat Breeds. — If you wish to keep a breed of chickens 
adapted especially to the production of meat, make your 
selection from among the so-called "meat breeds." The 
chickens of this group are large and heavy. They are 
extremely clumsy and awkward and are of a slow and 
inactive disposition. They are rather loosely feathered 




Rose Comb Anconas 

and several of the breeds have feathered shanks and toes. 
In shape and size they are especially adapted for the 
production of meat. Fowls of this type are slow in 
growing and maturing. They are very broody, make 
good sitters and mothers, are very hardy and are easily 
confined. In the meat breeds we would include the 
Brahma, Langshan, Cochin and Cornish Game. Not 
only are all the meat breeds large but the meat is fine in 
quality. 



i88 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

The Brahmas. — Brahmas are the largest of all vari- 
eties of chickens. They predominate in sections of the 
country where market poultry is grown. They make fine 
roasters and capons. The Brahma has a pea comb and 
is characterized by its extreme height and breadth. 

The Langshans. — These are also large and are good 
meat producers; but have a dark shank, skin and 




Dark Brahmas 



Black Langshans 



breast, a serious disadvantage in most American 
markets. The characteristic feature of the Langshan is 
the long leg, high tail and tall appearance. They have a 
rather large comb and wattles. They lay a compara- 
tively small number of brown-shelled eggs, but are con- 
sidered fair winter layers. 

The Cochins. — These chickens differ from the Brah- 



THE HEN AND HER PLACE 



189 



^-■>"i%)i 





White Cochins 



mas and Langshans in 
that they are- neither very 
large nor tall. They are 
very loosely feathered, 
sometimes being described 
as a ball of feathers. 
Their shanks are short 
and very heavily feath- 
ered. They were for- 
merly known by the name 
"Shanghai." One of 
their most distinctive fea- 
tures is the large mass of 
feathers on the back, known as the cushion or saddle. 
They are not very good layers and are very broody but 

are too clumsy and 
awkward to make good 
sitters and mothers. 
They can be kept 
profitably only for meat 
production. They are 
bred for exhibition pur- 
poses to quite an extent. 
Cornish Games. — 
The Cornish Game is 
said to have existed in 
pre-historic time. They 
Cornish Games havc rather long and 




I90 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

strong legs and necks, strawberry combs and compact 
and closely feathered bodies. They are good meat pro- 
ducers, but only fair layers of rather small eggs. 

General Utility Breeds. — The general utility breeds 
are sometimes known as "dual" or "general purpose" 
breeds. All are medium in size, disposition and ma- 
turity, or just about half way between the Mediterranean 
and Asiatic classes. They have yellow shanks and skin, 
with the exception of the Orpingtons and Dorkings. 
The general purpose breeds are fairly active an-d good 
foragers but are not so nervous as most of the egg breeds. 
They are considered ideal farmers' fowls because they 
have the ability to yield both a fair amount of flesh of 
good quality and a fair number of eggs. They are 
also considered good breeds for the back-lot poultry 
raiser because they do well in confinement and make ex- 
cellent sitters and mothers. Although they are medium 
in size they are not clumsy or awkward. All of the 
general purpose breeds, especially those of American 
origin, are exceptionally strong and hardy. They are 
heavy eaters, hence good producers of meat and eggs. 
In close confinement they should not be fed too much 
corn or other fattening feeds. They are good all the 
year around layers, and exceptionally good for winter 
eggs. However, they are not considered as excelling in 
either egg production or meat production, but are what is 
sometimes called, "a. happy medium." The following 
are the most important general purpose breeds: Ply- 



THE HEN AND HER PLACE 



191 







s^f-^^-' 



Dept. of Agriculture 

Barred Plymouth Rocks 



mouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, Wyandotte, Orpington 

and Dorking. 

Plymouth Rocks. — The Plymouth Rock is perhaps one 

o£ the most popular gen- 
eral purpose breeds. It 

is of American origin 

and very common on 

most American farms. 

In this breed we have 

several varieties, the 

Barred, White and Buff, 

respectively, being the 

most common. 

Rhode Island Reds. — 

The Rhode Island Red derives the first part of its name 

from the State in which it originated and the last part 

from its predominating 
color. In shape they 
are blocky and rectangu- 
lar. Like all the general 
purpose breeds they lay 
brown-shelled eggs, lack- 
ing a little in uniformity. 
They are rather persis- 
tent sitters and mothers. 
They are very popular, 

very hardy, good foragers, and are a profitable breed. 
Wyandottes. — The Wyandottes are blocky and beau- 




Rhode Island Reds 



192 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 

tifully curved in appearance. They are smaller than the 
Plymouth Rock, but on account of their plump appear- 




BUFF Wyandottes 



Dorkings 



ance make good broilers and roasters. All Wyandottes 
have a rose comb, but differ in the numerous colors of 




Buff Orpingtons 



plumage and plumage patterns. They have a rather 
short body and legs, and the legs are set well apart. 
Orpingtons. — The Orpington is an English bird. It 



THE HEN AND HER PLACE 193 

is very deep bodied with a large, rounded breast. We 
have four varieties of Orpingtons, Buff, Black, White 
and Blue. They are very stately in appearance. 

Dorkings. — The Dorking is another English bird, not 
very popular in America. It is smaller in size than most 
of our other general purpose breeds. Dorkings have a 
lif th toe, not found in any other breeds but the Houdans. 

SOME THINGS TO DO 

1. Go out to the poultry yards and watch the hens very care- 
fully, noting their actions and what they eat. 

2. Make a drawing of an egg-type, meat-type and general pur- 
pose type fowl. 

3. Compare your flock at home with the best full-blooded fowls 
you know. Where should it be improved? 

SOME QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT. 

1. Would your common barnyard fowls pay you better if you 
treated them as you would treat full-blood varieties? 

2. How did man come to breed so many different varieties of 
chickens, when we know that they all originally came from a wild 
fowl found in the jungles of India? 

3. What kind of chickens is your father keeping? 

4. In what respects do the chickens and cows differ? 



194 FIELD LORE FOR YOUNG FARMERS 



POINTS 



mi'TLES 







Dept. of Agriculture 



Names of Parts 



THE END 



